An
Iowa-based organization that supported the 2013 vote on a proposal to require
labeling of genetically modified foods has been fined nearly $320,000 over
campaign finance violations.
Washington
Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary
Tabor issued the this week against Food Democracy Action.
The
group must also pay the state's legal fees and trial costs.
Earlier
this month, another Thurston County judge ordered the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which
is against the proposal, to pay $18 million in civil fines for concealing the
true sources of $11 million in contributions received from some of the nation's
biggest food and beverage companies.
Ferguson
said Food Democracy Action collected almost $300,000 from its supporters and
transferred $200,000 of that to support Initiative 522, but didn't register its
political action committee or identify its 3,100 donors until after the
election.
Voters
turned thumbs down on mandatory GMO labeling.
