5@5: Monsanto, Syngenta talks | Higher purpose for cattle | World-changing millet

Monsanto again in talks with Syngenta: Report

The Swiss pesticide maker Syngenta AG is again in merger talks with Monsanto Co., as well as other companies, according to a Swiss newspaper report. Read more at St. Louis Business Journal...

What the Mast Brothers scandal tells us about ourselves

While the current saga of the Mast Brothers has taken on the swirling, un-anchored form of all great scandals, its point of origination is on the website Dallasfood.org, which recently published a four-part series investigating the chocolate makers' sourcing in their early years of operation. That got picked up by Quartz, which in turn got picked up — and expanded upon — by numerous publications, including Eater. Readers are eating it up. Twitter is buzzing with it. Everyone, it seems, is obsessed with this story. But why? Read more at Eater...

Millet: How a trendy ancient grain turned nomads into farmers

Like amaranth and quinoa before it, millet – a hardy, gluten-free ancient seed – has become an "it" grain in recent years. Once dismissed as birdseed, millet can now be found sprinkled on top of mashed potatoes at top-rated restaurants, cooked into baby foods, and generally extolled for its nutritious virtues. Some have even dubbed millet "the new quinoa." Read more at NPR...

Is more cattle grazing the solution to saving our soil?

“What can we do to increase productivity, make this pasture more diverse, get more species of grasses to return here?” he asks the 50 people clustered around him in paddock boots and seed-company caps. They look at him raptly, and he gives them the answer they drove hours to hear: “We can use livestock. Livestock is the most powerful tool we have.” Read more at National Geographic...

Start-up Modern AlkaMe is in the business of making you smarter

“We saw a need for a service like this,” said Carolyn Liikala, the portfolio manager for EvoNexus’ Irvine location. “Currently all (nootropic) users are going to blogs on what they should be taking. We really liked that the team had experience in that sector. They understood it well; they understood their customers well.” Supplements that fall into the nootropics category, aimed at improving cognition, range from older compounds, such as anti-oxidants, amino acids and ayurvedic medicine, to more recently developed products. Read more at Orange County Register...