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.

Can alternative economic indicators ever be any good if they are devised solely by experts?, From Poverty to Power

Misgivings About How a Weed Killer Affects the Soil, The New York Times

Seeds of Doubt, The New Yorker

Off the shelf: are people finally turning away from supermarkets?, The Guardian

Cultivating a Neglected Field, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Plants may use language to communicate with each other, Virginia Tech researcher finds, Virginia Tech News

Scraping the Seafloor for Fish Harms Biodiversity, Scientific American

Infographic: 9 plant diseases that threaten your favorite foods–and how GM can help, Genetic Literacy Project

Promoting Developmental Research: A Challenge for African Universities, Journal of Learning for Development

Uncovered, the mystery of exchanging genes with wild relatives, John Innes Centre

Mathematics helps find food crops’ climate-proof genes, BBC

Climate change adaptation can boost investment and job creation in Africa, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Nestlé calls world’s water scarcity ‘more urgent’ than climate change – as it sells bottled water from drought-ridden California, The Independent

Africa On GMOs: Scientific Response To Anti-technology NGOs, Leadership

Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers, The New York Times

China and Europe’s outsourcing of soy production impacts the Amazon, Mongabay

Rising economies ‘ahead on climate’, BBC

Agricultural Reality Stars, Food Tank

Farmer suicides reflect growing desperation in rural India, LA Times