Lexington: Farming as rocket science

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  Fight this war, not the last one Fly Title:  Lexington Rubric:  Why American agriculture is different from the European variety Main image:  20130907_USD000_0.jpg BEFORE growing up to become farmers, a startling number of America’s rural kids are taught how to build rockets. Every year rural skies fill with mini-missiles built by children. The largest fly hundreds of feet, carrying altimeters, parachutes and payloads of eggs. Baseball diamonds are popular launch sites, as are alfalfa fields: the latter tend to be large and, compared with other crops, alfalfa tolerates a fair bit of trampling. All this tinkering and swooshing explains a lot about American farms. One youth organisation lies behind many thousands of rural rocket launches: the 4-H club (it’s an acronym, derived from a pledge involving head, heart, hands and health). Among city slickers, 4-H is not well known. Yet its existence and its history reveal a great deal about America’s distinctive ...
Source: Biotechnology - Category: Biotechnology Source Type: news