Big data shows big promise for feeding the world

Digital innovations are set to transform a global food system in crisis.

These innovations, however, are reliant on large sets of data to help farmers make informed decisions and predict crop outcomes. From soil moisture to weather patterns and historical yield, countries like the United States and the United Kingdom have a lot of “big data” to put to work. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, has over a century of farm and public data to draw from.

But why does this matter?