Voters in four Californian counties are expected to have anti-biotechnology measures included on their November ballot papers, after opponents to the technology were spurred on by a law passed in Mendocino County that banned genetically modified plants and animals from its land.


Campaigners in Butte, Humboldt, Marin and San Luis Obispo counties collected enough signatures to get the measures included in the November ballots, reported the Associated Press. Meanwhile, campaigners in several other Californian counties are hoping to collect enough voter signatures to get similar measures included in their own counties next year.


The anti-biotechnology law passed in Mendocino earlier this year has had little effect on day-to-day farming as no GM crops or animals are currently raised in the county. Very few GM food crops are grown in California, and none are grown in the four counties expected to vote on the issue in November.