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The GMO issue came to a vote at the General Mills annual meeting Tuesday, and it wasn’t close: Only 2 percent of its shareholders favored a companywide ban.

Yet, the cross-currents of history and shifting consumer views toward genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production led to a layered discussion and prompted General Mills CEO Ken Powell to explain the foodmaker’s nuanced stand.

And it’s growing more nuanced all the time. In January, General Mills announced it was removing all genetically modified ingredients from its iconic Cheerios cereal, even as it kept those ingredients in varieties like Honey Nut Cheerios.

Then this month, the Golden Valley-based foodmaker paid a whopping $840 million for Annie’s Natural, a popular line of organic packaged products, as it seeks to push deeper into a fast-growing natural food market that scorns GMOs. With sales stagnating in many of General Mills’ traditional lines, it seeks growth in new areas.

At Tuesday’s annual meeting, the GMO question arose from a friendly quarter: the great-granddaughter of General Mills’ co-founder, who 137 years ago started a flour-miller in Minneapolis known as the Washburn Crosby Co.

“As a proud stockholder, I am concerned about our reputation as a company that uses genetically modified organisms,” Harriett Crosby told the annual meeting crowd.