05.01.2015 | permalink
City Council panel backs away from GMO ban it previously supported
Three days before Los Angeles lawmakers voted on a proposal to ban genetically modified crops, the world's largest biotechnology trade group hired three top City Hall lobbyists to stop it.
The matter had sailed through a meeting weeks before with only one City Council member expressing doubt.
But when a council committee sat down to vote again this month, three of the five members came out strongly against it — though they said lobbyists had nothing to do with it.
The action shocked Councilman Paul Koretz, who co-authored the proposal and expected his colleagues to rubber-stamp it as they had many times before.
"Since nothing else had changed ... it clearly was heavy lobbying," Koretz said later.
Such a ban would be largely symbolic in L.A. because there are currently no known genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs, grown within the city.