A worker takes a sample of fermenting beer at Budejovicky Budvar (Budweiser Budvar) brewery in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. REUTERS/David W Cerny

The Future of Food Production Will Look a Lot like Brewing Beer
The latest new buzzword in food tech? Fermentation. And we’re not talking about the kimchi or kombucha kind. Rather, it’s a process increasingly used by food companies to answer a ballooning demand for natural ingredients that are hard to come by. Instead of sourcing these ingredients from nature, food scientists are creating them through an industrial method that they describe as similar to brewing beer.

This Robot That Grows Animal Feed Is 400% More Productive Than a Human Farmer
A California-based company called Fodderworks makes robots that grow fodder (feed for cows, chickens, and other animals). According to Kyle Chittock, the company's general manager, an average person can harvest approximately half a ton of fodder per day, while Fodderworks' bot can do two tons—a productivity increase of 400%. 

3 Ways Gender Data Could Go ‘Big’
More tightly mapped trends in girls’ stunting and access to contraception in Bangladesh. A better understanding of women’s mobility in a Latin American city. Stronger insights into women’s mental health via social media in cities around the world. All of these findings can be traced to big data—and to a three-year project spearheaded by the UN Foundation’s Data2X initiative to apply large data sets to help close the gaping gender data gap.

A Genetically Modified Corn Could Stop a Deadly Fungal Poison—If We Let It
Aflatoxin is a well-known global health threat. This poison is common in corn, wheat, rice, and many other crops. It has also proved extremely difficult to eliminate or even reduce. But scientists at the University of Arizona may have a solution to the aflatoxin problem: shut off the gene in the fungus that triggers its production.