California is no stranger to anti-science beliefs; from anti-vaccine to anti-agriculture to anti-energy, you can stick a pin in a map of the coast and find alarmingly one-sided views on politics, medicine and science.
Los Angeles City Council wants to represent its anti-science constituency, and since 52% of LA County voted for Proposition 37, the initiative to put warning labels on genetically modified foods (unless such GMOs were in restaurants, bake sales, the deli at a Whole Foods or, of course, in alcohol - the people writing it were no dummies regarding what fights to avoid), they have decided they might like to ban GMOs in LA County.
Number of farms in LA County: Almost none. They just want to send a political message that they are against science, in the form of a “clear signal that in Los Angeles we want to return to GMO-free food,” said Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, who co-authored the proposal.
Now, California is primarily progressive rather than liberal, that is why the state is always banning stuff - goldfish, golf, Happy Meals, you name it - but I don't see any evidence that even California social authoritarians running the state have forced people to eat GMO foods. It seems like a daffy political solution to a non-existent problem.
Ban on GMO plants advances at L.A. City Hall by Soumya Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times
H/T American Council on Science and Health
