Source: Associated Press via Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology News Summary

Sonoma County supervisors agreed to allow voters to decide whether to become the fourth California county to ban genetically modified organisms, reports the Associated Press.

The measure, which will likely be voted on in November, would prohibit the cultivation of genetically altered plants and animals for 10 years.

"I think it is perhaps the most significant ballot initiative that voters will have ever had the chance of voting on in Sonoma County," Lex McCorvey, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, which opposes the ban, told The Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Biotech critics turned in more than 45,000 signatures last month, the most ever submitted for a local initiative.

"We are starting with a vast majority of people in the county supporting us," said Daniel Solnit, campaign coordinator for GE-Free Sonoma County. "Our job, in essence, is to hang on to most of the support we have, which is a nice place to start from."

County supervisors declined to adopt the law outright Tuesday and voted 5-0 to put the GMO ban before voters. The measure will be voted upon Nov. 8, unless Arnold Schwarzenegger calls for a special election before then.

Bans have already passed in Mendocino, Marin and Trinity counties. Voters in Humboldt, San Luis Obispo and Butte counties rejected similar ballot measures last November, reports AP.