What we’ve been reading this week

This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

Big Data and development: Upsides, downsides and a lot of questions, Duncan Green, Oxfam

Cash Crops With Dividends: Financiers Transforming Strawberries Into Securities, The New York Times

Video: ‘Journey of a gene’ illustrates science of genetic engineering for consumers, Genetic Literacy Project

Why NGOs can’t be trusted on GMOs, The Guardian

The Guardian, Marc Gunther and some NGOs can’t be trusted on GMOs, Political Concern

International Food Security Assessment, 2014-24, USDA

On Trial: Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa, Chatham House

Could businesses do for aid what Amazon did for retail?, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Missing Food, APPG on Agriculture and Food for Development

The Potential Impacts of Mandatory Labeling for Genetically Engineered Food in the United States, CAST

‘Peak soil’ threatens future global food security, Reuters

Fighting Climate Change With Trade, The New York Times

Roger Thurow: Smallholder farmers are the engine of poverty reduction, Devex

Fake seeds are keeping Uganda’s farmers poor, The Guardian

Ethiopia’s teff and the giant, new potential of a tiny, ancient grain, Oxfam

Saving soil: digging for solutions beneath our feet, The Christian Science Monitor

Fighting for African food security, Future Food 2050

We Can Prevent Another Food Price Crisis, Impatient Optimists

Why the next climate treaty is vital for my country to survive, The Guardian

Study of Organic Crops Finds Fewer Pesticides and More Antioxidants, The New York Times

Crops of the Past—and the Future, Food Tank

Vital invertebrates decline by 45 per cent, study finds, The Independent

What’s the beef with chicken?, The Guardian