Word: soiling
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Despite rich soil and an extended Caribbean growing season, Puerto Rico has not managed to produce enough food to sustain itself since the U.S. Army seized the island from Spain in 1898. Almost 70% of the commonwealth's food is imported; the government spends $1.2 billion a year buying groceries from abroad for its 3.3 million citizens. Local officials have tried without much success to stimulate food production. Though the commonwealth has spent $60 million to develop rice farming, only 3,000 acres have been brought into production...
...Sichuan is plump with signs of progress, there are also constant reminders of how primitive the province remains. The countryside is redolent of night soil, or human excrement, a time-honored method of fertilization. Carts are still pulled by men in harness. If a village is lucky enough to have a telephone, it is usually the hand-crank variety...
...verification issue goes far beyond nuclear testing. Actually, on-site inspection is not essential to a test ban, since seismic devices placed outside the Soviet Union can detect most underground nuclear explosions. The Soviets have even shown a willingness in the past to allow seismic sensors on their soil with direct satellite links to the U.S. Inspections of missile installations are a different matter, however, and have become a major sticking point of arms-control negotiations...
...water. Just this past April, scientists from the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a Department of Energy lab in Walnut Creek, Calif., announced in the journal Science that they had for the first time identified the unique mixes of microbes that thrive in different sorts of ecosystems. In farm soil, for example, there are any number of genes that produce substances that break down plant material--rotting genes, you might call them. In seawater, by contrast, there are very few rotting genes but lots of genes that process salts. By understanding the microbial gene profile of a healthy environment, scientists will...
...reach of most families. Millions of urban North Koreans have reportedly been sent into the countryside to help with spring planting. Pyongyang's propaganda arm recently released photos showing military officers standing beside rice paddies in which volunteer field laborers toiled. Messages exhorting citizens to donate night soil blare from loudspeakers on trucks that drive around cities and towns. The country desperately needs fertilizer to maximize yields, but nobody can meet the unrealistic human-waste production quotas, so they mix ash with their contributions, according to refugees...