Free Republic

XUAN CANH, Vietnam — Truong Thi Nha stands just four and a half feet tall. Her three grown children tower over her, just as many young people in this village outside Hanoi dwarf their parents. The biggest reason the children are so robust: fertilizer. Ms. Nha, her face weathered beyond its 51 years, said her growth was stunted by a childhood of hunger and malnutrition. Just a few decades ago, crop yields here were far lower and diets much worse. Then the widespread use of inexpensive chemical fertilizer, coupled with market reforms, helped power an agricultural explosion here that had...

Electricity, diesel, fertilizer prices tough on farmers, ranchers LUBBOCK, Texas (AP)--South Plains cotton producer Don Langston is eager for a "big rain." Without it he'll have to keep irrigation pumps running to water thousands of acres of dusty, parched land so there's enough moisture to plant this year's crop in a couple of months. He figures he'll spend as much as $50 more an acre than he did last year, when rainfall was plentiful, even by West Texas standards. "We're going to have to have a good crop just to break even," Langston said. "I'm OK. Just need a big...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Tuesday to require the registration of sales and purchases of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which has been converted into the explosive of choice for terrorists ranging from the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 to the 2002 attack on a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia. The bill, passed by voice vote, orders producers, sellers and some purchasers of ammonium nitrate to register with the Department of Homeland Security and makes producers and sellers maintain sales records. The department would check purchases against terrorist watch lists while retailers who refuse to sell to customers would receive civil...

Hey, CO2! What Have You Done for Me Lately? Volume 4, Number 28: 11 July 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From its pre-industrial level of 150 years ago (approximately 275 ppm), the air's CO2 concentration has risen to nearly 375 ppm today. What has this extra 100 ppm of CO2 done for world agriculture? Experiment Method: Mayeux et al. (1997) analyzed this question with respect to wheat, which they studied in a 38-meter-long controlled environment chamber located in a ventilated glass house. This chamber was composed of five 7.6-m lengths of a 0.76-m-deep and 0.45-m-wide soil container topped with a transparent and tunnel-shaped...

(MAYUGE) - If you are a farmer, you may want to think twice about flushing your urine down the toilet. Urine may be a waste product but it also has many uses, and the best part of it is that it comes with no price tag. Farmers in various parts of the country use human urine as fertilizers and to fight crop diseases. The method started in Baitambogwe Village in Mayuge District but has now spread to over 21 districts. Through knowledge sharing via telephone Short Message System commonly known as SMS, farmers in Baitambogwe are propagating the method to...

Shortages in raw materials slowing production of makeshift rockets, lead to decline in rocket fire from Gaza Ali Waked Published: 08.12.07, 11:07 / Israel News Shortages in fertilizers used by Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip to produce makeshift rockets have led to a decrease in the number of rockets fired towards Israel. Ynet found that Palestinian terror groups prefer to save their rockets for rainy days. But rockets continued to be fired towards Israel on Sunday, with three rockets landing in the western Negev. The shortages have been blamed on Egypt's clampdown on smugglers operating along the border...

Los Angeles (AP) -- A hijacked big rig that police believed was carrying tons of potentially dangerous fertilizer was actually holding a less threatening cargo — vacuum cleaners, authorities said Monday. The truck was being driven from Texas to Northern California when it disappeared from an industrial area. The Los Angeles Police Department publicized the theft as a precaution because the truck at that time was believed to be hauling 10,000 pounds of fertilizer. Certain types of fertilizer can be used to make explosives. After further investigation, police said the missing goods were commercial-style vacuum cleaners, not fertilizer.

A tractor-trailer that was stolen while the driver took a break has been recovered, but authorities were still searching Monday for the five tons of fertilizer it was carrying. Sheriff's deputies recovered the empty big-rig just before midnight Sunday, less than 12 hours after it was taken from a stretch of road used as a popular rest stop for truckers. The driver had parked in the industrial area near Griffith Park Sunday afternoon. When he returned about five hours later, the truck was gone, said Lt. David Young of the Los Angeles Police Department's Northeast Division. The truck turned up...

Riyad Aldahas, director general of the State Company of Fertilizers in Northern Iraq, gives his thanks to Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of Defense for Business Transformation, for visiting the facility Jan. 10, 2007, at the Bayji Fertilizer Plant. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joshua R. Ford Undersecretary Tours Salah Ad Din Fertilizer Plant U.S. leaders, industry executives meet to discuss bringing the plant to full capacity. By Spc. Joshua R. Ford 3rd Brigade Combat Team 82nd Airborne Division BAYJI, Iraq, Jan. 16, 2007 -- Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for Business Transformation, and Brig. Gen. Francis...

A resident of Jiff Jaffa casts his vote during the Agricultural Union elections on Sunday. Department of Defense photo by Army Cpl. Michael Molinaro, 2nd BCT, 4th Inf. Div. FOB KALSU -- Mimicking other recent success stories in Babil province, on Sunday farmers from the city of Jiff Jaffa held elections for their Agricultural Union board at a primary school in town. The election comes as a further demonstration of the concepts of democratic governance taking root around the country, this time with a commercial twist. Seven members were elected to lead the union into the future and help farmers...

ELDRIDGE, N.D. - A stowaway who made it past Customs agents and into the United States on the metal frame of a fertilizer truck has won over locals, who call her the "sweetest illegal immigrant we've ever met." The migrant — a cat — hopped aboard a semitrailer hauling fertilizer from Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, to Eldridge, near Jamestown. Customs agents at the border alerted the driver, but no one could catch the feline. When the semi arrived in Eldridge, the furry stowaway was still clinging to the frame. The trip Wednesday took about eight hours. "She had nothing to grip with...

The 1980s and 1990s were the Belle Époque - the beautiful age - of commercial development, a time when getting project approval could be as simple as shaking the right hand or making the right campaign donation. And Americans were all for it, ready to embrace the next mall or Home Depot or Starbucks Coffee outlet that gave them easy access to consumer products. Mike Saint was there for it and remembers when making proposed developments reality was simple. No more. "At a conference in 2004, I heard a developer say 'Up until 1999, anything I wanted to do was...

Yara wins Ethiopian contracts after handing out prize Oslo-based Yara International, one of the world's largest fertilizer makers, has won some major contracts in Ethiopia, just three months after it awarded a controversial prize to Ethiopia's prime minister. Yara boss Thorleif Enger (left) awarded a prize and USD 200,000 to controversial Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi. Yara said it wanted to honor Zenawi's contribution to the African Green Revolution. PHOTO: HEIKO JUNGE/SCANPIX Protesters outside the Oslo Concert House didn't think Ethiopia's president deserved the prize. PHOTO: HEIKO JUNGE/SCANPIX Related stories: Yara ponders ship sale - 22.12.2005 Yara establishes African prize -...

HELENA, Mont. - The Rocky Mountain West, long a Republican stronghold, is fertile ground for Democrats hoping to take back Congress and the White House in coming years, Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean told supporters here Saturday. Democrats have more in common with Westerners than the GOP, the former Vermont governor said. They appreciate the free-spirited, independent thinking that dominate states like Montana, and understand the wish for a balanced budget and a strong military, as well as treating soldiers well when they get home, something Dean said the Bush administration has neglected. "I think we're going to have a...

Koreas Can't Break Nuclear Impasse By PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago SEOUL, South Korea - The two Koreas concluded their first face-to-face talks in 10 months Thursday without making any progress on the impasse over the North's nuclear program, although they did agree to hold Cabinet-level talks next month. The agreement came hours after word emerged of a secret meeting last week between U.S. and North Korean officials. The focus of both efforts was to get Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation talks on getting it to abandon its nuclear program, but the reclusive communist country -- which regularly uses...

Newsweek: Mistakes Made in 'Good Faith' Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Newsweek Retracts Koran-Desecration Story WASHINGTON — One day after retracting a story that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran (search), a top Newsweek editor acknowledged the magazine made "serious mistakes" but suggested to FOX News that no one would be fired over the incident. "Clearly there were mistakes here," Dan Klaidman (search), Newsweek's Washington bureau chief, told FOX News on Tuesday. "It was in good faith, they were honest mistakes, and we are trying to be transparent about it." Asked if anyone would be fired, Klaidman didn't answer directly but...

South Korea has been agonizing over a recent request from North Korea for an ``unusually’’ large volume of fertilizer aid, officials in Seoul said Sunday. According to the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC), the North’s Red Cross sent a telephone message on Jan. 13 asking for 500,000 tons of fertilizer for this spring. It marks a large increase from the 300,000 tons that Seoul has shipped to the North every year _ 200,000 tons in the spring and the remaining 100,000 tons in the autumn _ since the historic 2000 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, with the exception of 2001. South...

Want to purchase some locally produced, organic fertilizer for you garden? Unfortunately it contains arsenic, lead and mercury amongst other interesting additives. And it may spontaneously explode and burn while in storage. Not interested? Then how about buying acclaimed Foodland Ontario vegetables and fruit, grown on a less refined version of the same ‘natural’ fertilizer? These are not available at present, as Toronto’s sewage pelletizer, which made the fertilizer, burned down in July 2003. And biosolids ‘cake,’ the less processed poop, is not exactly popular with the province’s farmers. But they could be coming soon to a store near you,...

AGRIUM: The site will remain open if it can negotiate cheap gas. Alaska's biggest manufacturing employer says it will shut down its Kenai Peninsula plant in November 2005 unless it can strike a deal for new supplies of inexpensive natural gas. Agrium, owner of the 36-year-old fertilizer plant in Nikiski, announced Tuesday it had settled long-running lawsuits with Unocal, the oil company that sold the facility in 2000. The settlement assures Agrium a supply of cheap gas only through October of next year. After that, the plant will shut down unless a favorable new contract for gas can be obtained,...

Direct Link Discovered Between Agricultural Runoff And Algal Blooms In SeaScientists have found the first direct evidence linking large-scale coastal farming to massive blooms of marine algae that are potentially harmful to ocean life and fisheries. Researchers from Stanford University's School of Earth Sciences made the discovery by analyzing satellite images of Mexico's Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California - a narrow, 700-mile-long stretch of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Mexican mainland from the Baja California Peninsula. Immortalized in the 1941 book Sea of Cortez, by writer John Steinbeck and marine biologist Edward Ricketts, the...