Most Recent Posts

An effort to label genetically modified foods in Colorado failed to garner enough support Tuesday. It's the latest of several state-based GMO labeling ballot measures to fail. UPDATE: A similar measure in Oregon was also defeated by a narrow margin.

Voters in Colorado resoundingly rejected the labeling of foods that contain the derivatives of genetically modified - or GMO – crops, with 66 percent voting against, versus 34 percent in favor.

In Oregon the outcome was closer, with fewer than 51 percent voting against the measure. Political ad spending in Oregon was more competitive than in Colorado, where labeling opponents outspent proponents by millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, a proposal in Maui County, Hawaii, skipped the labeling debate altogether. Voters there narrowly approved a moratorium on GMO crop cultivation. The state has been a battleground between biotech firms and food activists. Some Hawaiian farmers grow a variety of papaya genetically engineered to resist a plant virus.

Polling prior to the GMO labeling vote in Colorado was scarce. Polls found Colorado's measure faced an uphill battle in the final weeks before the election. A Suffolk University poll found only 29 percent of registered voters favored the measure, while 49 percent were likely to vote against it. A Denver Post poll was even more damning. According to that poll, 59 percent were opposed to GMO labeling in Colorado, 34 percent in favor.

Colorado's Proposition 105 would've required food companies to label packaged foods with the text "produced with genetic engineering." Oregon's Measure 92 says food labels would need to include the words "genetically engineered." Many processed foods contain soybean oil, corn syrup, refined sugar and cottonseed oil. Those oils and syrups are often derived from GMO crops that farmers have adopted over the last 18 years. Few whole foods, like the ones you see in the produce aisle, are genetically engineered, though some GE varieties of sweet corn, squash and papaya are approved for sale in the U.S.

The failed measures in Colorado and Oregon follow a nationwide trend. Similar ballot questions in California and Washington state were rejected in 2012 and 2013, respectively. This summer, Vermont's governor signed the nation's first GMO labeling requirement into law. It's supposed to take effect in 2016, but a coalition of biotech firms and farmer groups have filed suit to prevent that from happening.

Groups opposed to GMO labeling poured big money into efforts to quash the ballot measures, spending more than $15 million in Colorado alone. In Oregon, opponents of labeling raised more than $18 million, making the ballot measure the most expensive issue campaign in the state's history. Most of that money came from large seed corporations like Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer, and from processed food companies like Pepsi, Land O' Lakes and Smucker's. All of that outside money opened labeling opponents up to criticism of being tied to corporate interests.

"The reality is, campaigns cost money, and I'm really proud to say that groups like Smucker's, like Pepsi, stood shoulder to shoulder with the farmers that are growing their ingredients," says Chad Vorthmann, executive vice president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, which also contributed to the "No on 105" campaign.

Supporters of GMO labeling efforts took issue with opponents' claims that the measure would result in the cost of food going up and increase the burden on farmers. Despite Tuesday's loss at the ballot box, Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the national Center for Food Safety, which supports labeling efforts, saw a silver lining in the outcome.

"Despite an aggressive and deceptive anti-consumer campaign, hundreds of thousands of Colorado voters spoke up in favor of GE food labeling," Kimbrell said in a statement.

Even with a down vote in Colorado, don't expect a dramatic shift in the debate around genetically modified crops.

Labeling proponents say the elections have been bought, not just in Colorado but in California and Washington state as well, and vow to keep trying. Earlier this year, the Grocery Manufacturers Association – which includes members like Kraft and Pepsi — proposed its own voluntary national labeling standard, but that effort has yet to gain any significant traction at the federal level.

GMO labeling

Airlines are paying less for jet fuel these days. But don't expect that price drop to translate into Thanksgiving travel bargains for you.

Rather than cut fares, airlines are turning fuel savings into cash for acquiring aircraft, upgrading software, rewarding workers and attracting long-term investors, according to John Heimlich, chief economist for Airlines For America, A4A, a trade group.

The major carriers that filed for bankruptcy during the Great Recession have learned to be more "fiscally responsible," Heimlich told reporters Thursday. After years of fighting with creditors, "they are paying their bills," he said.

In the long run, "enhanced creditworthiness" will create a more stable industry that can better serve travelers, Heimlich said.

But for now, those bill-paying efforts are sending air fares higher, with carriers pushing them up five times this year, according to Farecompare.com.

While A4A notes that fares are lower than in 2000 after adjusting for inflation, consumers might point out today's higher fees and taxes have driven up total travel costs. In addition, in many markets, fliers have fewer choices in the wake of a merger wave that combined: American Airlines with US Airways; United with Continental; Delta with Northwest and Southwest with AirTran.

Business

Regulators And Airlines Fight Over Fares, Fees And Fairness

Heimlich points out that the consolidated industry needs additional revenue to keep pace with higher operating costs for aircraft loan payments, rents, landing fees, new software and skilled labor.

In fact, the industry's capital expenditures for the first nine months of this year amounted to more than $1 billion per month—the highest rate of reinvestment in 13 years, he said. Customers are benefiting from those investments by getting more Wi-Fi options, updated gate areas, new aircraft and better kiosks.

These upgrades may attract more travelers in the future, but for now, domestic air traffic growth has been restrained, still running below pre-recession levels.

Heimlich predicts that this year's improving economy will help nudge up air travel to 24.6 million passengers over the Thanksgiving travel period, an increase of 1.5 percent from last year. But that number is still about six percent lower than the Thanksgiving period before the recession hit, he said.

He says this year, Sunday, Nov. 30, will be the busiest air travel day of this year, followed by Wednesday, Nov. 26.

George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, says bargain hunters have better luck finding cheap flights when they are willing to accept "middle seats next to the lavatory, red-eye flights, or 5 a.m. departures."

air travel

Airlines

For the past 17 years the celebratory music of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars has contradicted the horrors they witnessed during their country's civil war. The guitar-driven group came together in Guinean refugee camps in the late 1990s and has gone on to perform on international stages and collaborate with rock stars.

YouTube

Now its members face a different plight. Since the spring, the Refugee All Stars have been living in American exile because of the Ebola epidemic.

"We want to keep the band alive and have decided to be here until either a vaccine, or anything, is found that can eradicate Ebola and we can go back," bandleader and lead singer Ruben Koroma says from the All Stars' current base in Providence, R.I.

When the Refugee All Stars began their tour of the United States in early April, Ebola had not yet become widespread in their homeland, Koroma says. "Around July, the media started talking about it and we were receiving calls from Sierra Leone about how dreadful it is."

So the group began raising money to support for relief efforts (including a new Ebola-educational TV channel called WeOwnTV) and sending more money to their families in the country.

"Our financial responsibilities have increased," Koroma says. "We have to send money to the people in our villages and keep them comfortable. Because most of the time, quarantined people can't move one place to another, but they still need money. All of our schools are closed now. We have to raise money to pay a private teacher so our children can be back on their feet."

While there has been panic about Ebola in this country, Koroma says the band has been treated kindly in New England, with a few exceptions.

"One time we went to an African restaurant in Providence to buy food," Koroma says, "and we saw that stigma when the people there would run away from us."

i i

Perhaps the All Stars are drinking a toast to their new album Libation — "an offering to celebrate the blessings that our music has brought to us." David De Groot hide caption

itoggle caption David De Groot

Perhaps the All Stars are drinking a toast to their new album Libation — "an offering to celebrate the blessings that our music has brought to us."

David De Groot

All of this comes at a time when the band's music is thriving. They draw on popular West African idioms like gumbe and palm wine, which tend to be upbeat, small-band dance music with the audience joining in the chorus (the latter genre got its name from the beverage favored in Freetown bars). The All Stars also have a reggae flavor, reflecting cultural ties between former British colony Sierra Leone and English-speaking Caribbean islands.

Earlier this year, the group released Libation (Cumbancha), which marks a return to acoustic roots.

The group would like to continue touring across North America. Upcoming concerts and the All Stars' contact information are on its website. Koroma said they have remained optimistic in the face of current hardships.

"As long as we are together and play music together, it gives us warmth, more confidence and hope that we will come out of this situation," Koroma says. "We came out of the war, and so we know that we will prevail over Ebola."

Sierra Leone All Stars

ebola

Robert F. Kennedy once said that GDP, or gross domestic product, "measures everything ... except that which makes life worthwhile."

GDP, in case you weren't paying attention in Econ 101, looks at economic activity as a way to size up how a country is doing.

RFK has a point. The status of a country amounts to more than the number of goods it produces and sells. Psychology professor Arthur Stone says, "Right now, there's a lot of dissatisfaction in using GDP as a measure of a country's progress."

So then what do you use?

For several years now, scientists have been grappling with this question. A study published this week in The Lancet uses levels of personal satisfaction to examine global well-being. Stone is one of the study's authors — and the director of the University of Southern California's Dornsife Center for Self-Report Science.

Researchers examined data from the Gallup World Poll and the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, both of which poll residents about their lives. About 1,000 people in 160 countries were asked how satisfied they were; how they'd rate their moods, such as happiness, sadness and anger; and their judgments about the meaning and purpose of their lives.

"Well-being includes objective circumstances, like safety, money and health, but also subjective things like how people feel about their lives," says Stone.

Related NPR Stories

Study: Older Americans Aim To Stay Independent In Their Homes July 14, 2014

In wealthy countries like the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, people report the lowest level of satisfaction during their middle years, starting at about age 45. Then at about age 54, they start reporting less stress, anger and worry. Their reported levels of happiness and satisfaction only increase thereafter, into old age.

But in countries facing economic (as well as political) struggles — in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa — people grow less satisfied as they get older. People report sharp declines in life satisfaction in middle age and continuing into old age. And people in sub-Saharan Africa report low levels of satisfaction as youngsters — and things never get better.

Interviews

Billy Crystal Finds Fun In Growing Old (But Still Can't Find His Keys)

While data from the study can't say why that is, it's possible to speculate from some of the interviews that poverty, poor health and substandard housing are factors. (So maybe GDP does have something to do with satisfaction after all.)

Perhaps the relentless downward slope in some of the countries reflects "political changes like the fall of communism," Stone says. But he adds: "We can't say exactly why that is. We don't have all of that data. But this really pushes for more research."

Poor health is connected to lower life satisfaction in the survey data. It could be a two-way street: Poor health might lead to lower rates of happiness while lower satisfaction with life contributes to poor health. But those relationships need more research, says Stone: "It's an interesting question. As you age, life satisfaction is improving for many people, but when you get to a point where you're really ill, satisfaction numbers go to hell."

There is a perception in the U.S. that people in other countries treat elders better than Americans do. "This [study] flies in the face of what we think," Stone says. "In the U.S., the person on the street would say older people are not respected much here. In other countries, families may respect elders, but some social systems do not."

Aging

Global Health