A Californian ballot proposing the labelling of genetically modified ingredients in food products has been rejected by the state's voters .
With 95% of votes counted, the polls showed 47% voted in favour and 53% against. The contentious measure, proposition 37, would have required GM labels on food sold in supermarkets, and was seen as a testbed case for the US as a whole.
Monsanto and other agribusiness and food companies such as PepsiCo and Nestle spent $45m on advertising and lobbying for the "no" campaign, compared with around $8m for the "yes" campaign, that was largely funded by organic food companies.
Before the vote, the prop 37 supporter Andrew Kimbrell had said he hoped it would be the "hammer we needed to break open the federal roadblock". But those hopes have been dashed with 23,221 of 24,491 precincts in the state reporting votes.
Grant Lundberg, CEO of Lundberg Family Farms, co-chair of the Yes on 37 group, told the ...