GMOs, Voters, Money and Facts: Lunch w Louden 11/13/14

Kate Wildrick and Manju Bassell will join host Jeanene Louden as we discuss GMOs, Voters, Money and Facts: Lunch with Louden 11/13/14. (Bios for our guests and many related articles can be found at the Lunch with Louden Facebook page.)

The Oregon Mandatory Labeling of GMOs Initiative, Measure 92, was on the November 4th ballot as an initiated state statute, where it was narrowly defeated (at least "called"). The measure would have mandated the labeling of certain foodstuffs that were produced with or contained genetically modified organisms. 

This ballot measure became the poster child for everything that has become a challenge for the informed voter.

Voter Participation - With just under 4M residents in the state, 2.2M are registered voters. Even with the healthy voting rate of 69.5%, over 630K ballots were not cast, or at least not counted. Wednesday morning The results of this too-close-to-call race were NO 696,293 (50.5%), and YES 683,276 (49.5%). The 13K+ spread was down to just over 6K by mid morning. That means if 1% of the non-voters had voted, they could have changed the outcome.

Money - The financial investment on this issue alone was record breaking. NO supporters spent just over $20M and YES supporters spent just under $9M. This pencils out to over $20 per vote. Most of the money for both sides came from out of state. Big money was well represented. 

Information - "Information" flew fast and furious. Oregon felt like a battleground state (not normal for us) with ads that answered ads that answered ads and too many non-recyclable "post cards": the nature of GMOs, the costs of labeling, the need for "more law" had a ping pong tournament quality. 

What was an informed voter to do? What shall we do in the future?