Oregonians have ballots in hand, dilemmas to solve and a deadline of Nov. 4 to seal their ballots and get them in. There are seven statewide measures on the ballot. We haven’t said much about most of them. There are so few votes in Eastern Oregon that even a landslide here won’t make much of a dent in the results. We hope, though, that somewhere in the Nov. 4 results will be something that says, “You’re wrong. Klamath and Lake counties made a difference.” …

Complex food labeling issue

Measure 92: Requires food manufacturers, retailers to label “genetically engineered” foods as such. It doesn’t include restaurant food or meat and dairy products.

It’s certainly the most complicated measure on the ballot, and is perhaps the most complicated in years. Supporters build their case on the appealing belief that they should be able to find out what they’re eating. We doubt they would get that, though, from the proposed labeling system that exempts dairy and meat products as well as food sold in restaurants. There’s a lot of disagreement and debate over the potential costs of the scientific information and processing needed for the labels.

Given the facts that genetically engineered products are already widely sold and that information is available through labels that declare products “non-GMO” or “organic,” we wonder if it wouldn’t be simpler, and perhaps even safer, for consumers to assume that products not so labeled have genetically engineered material in them and avoid them, rather than making it a matter of law that would enforcement and regulatory costs.

Our recommendation: No.

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