Tomorrow Washingtonians will vote on I-522, which will require mandatory labeling of foods produced with biotechnology if passed.
I came across this interesting (and apparently neutral) web site from Voter's Edge MapLight that catalogs the major arguments, donors, endorsements, etc.
The list of donors on both sides is predictable, but after clicking through on the donations page, I found it interesting to see where the donations originated.
This is not a fight between regular people but vested interested and organizations on both sides of the issue.
Less than 1% of donations against I-522 are from individuals and only about 20% of donations for I-522 are from individuals. The rest comes from "organizations" and "other" (I have no idea what "other" refers to).
Also of interest is the location of donors. Neither pro or anti I-522 camps can list Washington state as the largest source of donations. The largest share of donations for I-522 (38.5%) comes from California and against I-522 (25%) are from Missouri (that's Monsanto). Interesting that 7.5% of donations for I-522 are from the tiny geographic spot of D.C.
Make no mistake about it, this is a proxy fight for something much bigger than whether people in WA see labels on GMO foods.
For interested readers, I've already offered my thoughts on the substance of the debate here.