This news report research about the agriculture… .Chicken feathers are useful, and not just to a chicken.

pillows, coats and other products. But countless chicken feathers go to waste. one billions of chickens are
produced yearly. Most of their feathers are thrown away. But instead of being buried in landfills, some
feathers could find a future in plastics…..Saintists in the Washington area have been working with
keratin, the main substance in poultry fehers. One of the products they have developed is a flowerpot. It
may look like other flowerpots. But the container breaks down in the earth within one to five years. And
as it breaks down, it naturally releases nitrogen into the soil.The flowerpots are made by reducing chicken
feathers to a powder. Then the powder is formed into pellets and shaped into pots.The environmentally
friendly flowerpot is the work of two researchers. Walter Schmidt is with the Agricultural Research
Service, part of the United States Agriculture Department. Masud Huda is with the Horticultural Research
Institute, a private organization.
The institute's research director, Mark Teffeau, says the flowerpot works well for vegetables and small
flowering plants like geraniums and impatiens.Walter Schmidt has been working to find uses for chicken
feathers since the nineteen nineties. Progress in two thousand two showed that plastic made from feathers
could be formed like other plastics.He says feathers are much stronger and last longer than another plant
material, cellulose.Feathers are about eight times as strong as cellulose. By design, feathers are strong and
durable. And the other part about it is if feathers were twice as heavy, or half as strong, then birds couldn't
flyHe points out that traditional flowerpots made from petroleum-based plastics can last much longer. But
he wonders if there is really a need. He says most flowerpots are never re-used.Why would you want a
plastic that you use for a year to last for two hundred years….. It makes no sense. You want to match the
product with the use….Walter Schmidt and Masud Huda are now adding another chicken product to their
flowerpots -- chicken waste. The waste will add more nutrients to the soil as the pot breaks down. The
scientists say they hope their flowerpot will be on the market in a year or two.And that's the Vioei Special
English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson with Zulima Palacio. You can find transcripts,
MP3s, podcasts and archives of our reports at voueispecialenglish dot kom

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Another winter day has comeAnd gone awayAnd even Paris and RomeAnd I wanna go homeLet me go home
And I’m surrounded byA million people IStill feel aloneOh, let go homeOh, I miss you, you know
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tonightI’m coming back home