VOA慢速英语2010年-Agriculture Report - A Chicken in Ever

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Chicken feathers are useful, and not just to a chicken. Some go into pillows, coats and other products. But countless¹ chicken feathers go to waste.

In the United States, 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.

Scientists in the Washington area have been working with keratin, the main substance in poultry² feathers. 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.

A Jordanian boy sells chickens in a street in Amman

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.

WALTER SCHMIDT: "Feathers are about eight times as strong as cellulose. By design, feathers are strong and durable³. And the other part about it is if feathers were twice as heavy, or half as strong, then birds couldn't fly.”

He 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.

WALTER SCHMIDT: "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 nutrients⁴ 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 VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson with Zulima Palacio. You can find transcripts⁵, MP3s, podcasts and archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

 

1 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

2 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

3 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

4 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句