New Food-Growth Product a Bit Hairy 243
MeatBag PussRocket writes "An article from Marketplace.org reports, 'A Florida company has developed an all-natural product that it says could revolutionize how food is grown in the US. It's called Smart Grow, but it might be a tough sell. It's inexpensive. It eliminates the need for pesticides, so it's environmentally friendly, but it's human hair. Plant pathologists at the University of Florida have found the mats eliminate weeds better than leading herbicides and can also make plants grow up to 30 percent larger.'"
Re:Does it work only with human hair? (Score:2, Interesting)
Not so bad... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not so bad. My HS science teacher told me about an experiment where people off the street were given free chicken and asked how it tastes, etc. Later they were told that the chickens were fed plants grown exclusively from human waste. They didn't eat any more of the chicken after being told this.
But, there's absolutely nothing wrong with eating an animal which has been fed plants grown on manure, human or otherwise :P
Re:Not so bad... (Score:3, Interesting)
On a field trip to MSFC in 5th grade, a couple of us were brave enough to try water from the prototype of the recycled-urine machine on the space station. Everyone looked at us funny, but it didn't taste any different.
When I was a kid.... (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was in High School, some of the girls there sold their hair once a year to one of the hair product companies, I believe Clairol, but I could be wrong. Pretty sure it was used for testing hair products.
They actually got quite a bit for it, depending on the length, color and how much they treated it. I remember going to a keg party that was financed by such a girl cashing in on her hair.
I also remember that one of those same girls always had these crazy long fingernails, as she sold those as well.
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Interesting)
Of dangerous chemicals, animal manure, or human hair, people are squeamish about the human hair?
I once heard an old gardener say that the best way to plant a rose bush is on top of a wad of human hair. Apparently this has been done for centuries.
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sounds like a way for barbers and hair salons to make a little extra money on something that they would otherwise throw away. Start a company advertising that you're going to pay $X per pound of hair. People interested would send away for a box/envelope to put the hair in and send it off to receive their money. Prisons, military boot camps, etc would also be good sources. No one is going to be rounding up hippies and force shaving them even if it would be good for the environment.
IIRC, human hair is also a good way to kill slugs. The hair gets wrapped around them and strangles the pests.
Re:Ok, I'm sold, but that's just the first year. (Score:3, Interesting)
seems like an ecodisaster
Why? Something that doesn't degrade... isn't a problem. We make all kinds of things that don't degrade - bricks and concrete, for example - and they're not ecodisasters. They do occupy landfill space, but very few places are really at any risk of running out of landfill space. As long as they don't have toxic leachates - such as older, metallic newspaper inks - there's really very little concerning about plastics per se. (Interesting tip for the young: did you know why Styrofoam first became a bugbear of the environmental movement? Not because it doesn't biodegrade - it's harmless insulation, after all - but because it was blown into foam using CFCs.)