GSS to check on GMO attitudes, and education/intelligence (or lack of) are the strongest predictors of skepticism, not ideology. And the best social science doesn’t seem to indicate strong political valence to anti-vaccination sentiment at the grassroots. But sometimes looking at aggregates misses the important dynamics. I’d argue that the reason people keep thinking that there is a correlation between anti-vaccination opinions and anti-GMO opinions and the Left is that the the most vocal elite expositors of these positions hail from the cultural Left. Policy positions that start out non-ideological can quickly become polarized when elites lead in a particular direction. The state of Oregon had a ballot measure on genetically modified organisms and labeling. Oregon also legalized marijuana. We have county-by-county results for both, as well as results for the governor’s race. I brought them together and generated some scatter plots. As you can see below: 1) There is a strong correlation on the county level for support for legalization of marijuana and GMO labeling (R2 is just the square of the correlation, and explains proportion of variation in Y explainable by variation in X). 2) There is a strong correlation on the county level for support for Democratic candidates and GMO labeling. I am aware that not all of those who support GMO labeling are denalists. Some of them are scientists. But my personal experience with those who support GMO labeling (there was a measure in California a few years back) is that their rationales are inchoate, and often not “reality based” (i.e., they are more about fear than anything else). Though there is no strong political valence on the grassroots at this point, I predict that if GMO labeling keeps coming up over and over, and it becomes a social movement, you’ll see it become Left-tinged as people like Michael Pollan start polarizing opinions. Of course in some places, such as Europe, the anti-GMO position has swept society to become the dominant one. READ MORE

Raw data: County Yes, Marijuana Yes, GMO label Democrat for governor Baker 41 32 27 Benton 60 52 59 Clackamas 51 47 46 Clatsop 57 50 46 Columbia 53 45 43 Coos 53 50 42 Crook 41 31 29 Curry 56 52 41 Deschutes 51 46 46 Douglas 45 41 34 Gilliam 41 23 32 Grant 35 32 25 Harney 34 26 24 Hood River 57 54 59 Jackson 53 55 43 Jefferson 44 32 34 Josephine 50 49 35 Klamath 44 36 28 Lake 38 29 23 Lane 60 57 57 Lincoln 62 53 54 Linn 47 38 35 Malheur 31 32 25 Marion 48 42 41 Morrow 34 27 28 Multnomah 71 62 70 Polk 47 42 41 Sherman 38 23 28 Tillamook 58 45 47 Umatilla 37 32 29 Union 41 33 31 Wallow 39 35 28 Wasco 49 40 43 Washington 55 48 52 Wheeler 36 32 29 Yamhill 50 41 41