California Governor Gray Davis was poised early in September to sign a bill aimed at protecting the export value of the state's $320 million rice crop that would restrict sales of genetically engineered rice and could bode ill for other biotechnology crops grown in this agriculturally diverse state. Because some 40% of the rice crop is exported to Japan, where consumers are very particular about rice quality and many are also opposed to genetically modified (GM) foods, the bill specifies that different types of rice are to be kept separate after harvest and fees imposed on seeds of various rice varieties. Although the legislation does not directly single out GM techniques, biotechnology industry representatives in the state say it puts their products in a particularly bad light and they may be forced to take them elsewhere.

Meanwhile, late in August, city council members in Minneapolis, MN, passed a resolution calling for the labeling of GM foods and for including organic foods in city contracts. A statewide biotechnology industry group criticized the resolution and asked council members and the mayor to consider either rescinding the measure or drastically reworking it. And, in a similar frame of mind, officials in the small city of Boulder, CO, agreed to a measure that would ban planting of GM plants on some 15,000 acres of city-owned land.