Why Bill Gates Wants to Give Away 100,000 Chickens
Bill Gates told listeners at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy that his foundation hopes to raise the percentage of West African households who own chickens from 5% to 30% in an effort to increase nutrition and income levels in one of the most impoverished regions of the world. His foundation invests $400 million in its livestock programs annually and hopes to reach its 30% goal in five years.
 
The Future of Agriculture: Factory Fresh
Agriculture is becoming more like manufacturing thanks to a better understanding of DNA and tightly controlled operations. In the short run, these improvements will boost farmers’ profits and should also benefit consumers in the form of lower prices. In the longer run, though, they may help provide the answer to how the world can be fed without putting irreparable strain on the Earth’s soils and oceans.
 
Are Shipping Containers the Future of Farming?
Freight Farms is a new startup that produces steel boxes in which you can grow crops with the help of temperature control and LED lighting. The steel boxes are former “reefers”—refrigerated shipping containers used to transport cold goods.  According to data pooled by the company, an average Freight Farms box can produce 48,568 marketable mini-heads of lettuce a year—the growing power of two acres of farmland.
 
Global Standard to Measure Food Waste Aims to Put More on Plates
A new global standard for measuring food loss and waste is the first set of international definitions and reporting requirements for businesses, governments, and others to manage food loss and waste. The effort hopes to channel more food to the undernourished around the world and cut emissions from the production of uneaten food.
 
4-H Program Aims to Grow Next Generation of Ag Scientists
A study last year by the USDA and Purdue University found that nearly 60,000 high-skilled agriculture-related jobs open up annually, but there are only about 35,000 college graduates available to fill them. Minnesota's 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge aims to nurture the next generation of agricultural scientists by encouraging high-schoolers to conduct independent research projects.