What is in your food? In Cal­i­for­nia, a new bal­lot ini­tia­tive may give con­sumers the pow­er to demand a clear answer to that question.

“These are the same companies that told us DDT and Agent Orange were safe,” she says. “We have to point out to the California voters who we are up against and that they cannot be trusted.”

Propo­si­tion 37, also known as the Cal­i­for­nia Right to Know Genet­i­cal­ly Engi­neered Food Act, would require com­pa­nies to label foods made with genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied organ­isms (GMOs) and bar them from describ­ing these foods as ​“nat­ur­al.” In order to place the ini­tia­tive on the bal­lot, the Cal­i­for­nia Right to Know cam­paign col­lect­ed approx­i­mate­ly a mil­lion sig­na­tures in a 10-week period.

Though the health effects of GMOs in humans have not been stud­ied long-term, some sci­en­tists say that tests on ani­mals show cause for con­cern. ​“Con­sumers have a fun­da­men­tal right to know what is going into their food,” says Cal­i­for­nia Right to Know spokesper­son Sta­cy Malkan. ​“For too long cor­po­ra­tions have left con­sumers out of the equa­tion. We’re bring­ing them back into the dis­cus­sion and giv­ing them true choice.”

Though 50 coun­tries have passed some sort of GMO label­ing law, the Unit­ed States has not, and the only U.S. state to have done so is Alas­ka, which requires label­ing on fish and shell­fish. Attempts at label laws have failed in 19 oth­er states in the face of well-fund­ed oppo­si­tion cam­paigns. Sup­port­ers of the Cal­i­for­nia ini­tia­tive have rea­son to remain opti­mistic, though, as a recent poll shows 70 per­cent support.

Despite pub­lic approval, the road to pas­sage will not be easy. The Big Food indus­try has already begun an aggres­sive cam­paign to oppose the ini­tia­tive. Mak­ers of house­hold food prod­ucts, such as Camp­bell Soup and Gen­er­al Mills, have raised more than $10 mil­lion to defeat Prop 37. Anoth­er $15 mil­lion has come from Big Agro com­pa­nies such as Mon­san­to, which increas­es prof­its by patent­ing GMO seeds.

Malkan hopes Cal­i­for­nia vot­ers will see past the flashy ad cam­paign this fall and rec­og­nize the hid­den agen­da of these companies.

​“These are the same com­pa­nies that told us DDT and Agent Orange were safe,” she says. ​“We have to point out to the Cal­i­for­nia vot­ers who we are up against and that they can­not be trusted.”

The Prop 37 vote on Novem­ber 6 will be a show­down between cor­po­rate mon­ey and grass­roots orga­niz­ing, and the suc­cess or fail­ure of the ini­tia­tive will have a strong impact on future label­ing efforts, includ­ing one cur­rent­ly under­way in Oregon.

​“This is one of the most impor­tant issues we’re fac­ing,” says Malkan. ​“This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to restore pow­er to the Amer­i­can con­sumer and to grass­roots democracy.”