If you feed a chicken nothing but cottonseed meal, she'll die in a week. If you eat nothing but cottonseed meal, you'll die too. It'll just take a little longer.
     This is true even though cottonseed is a rich source of protein, and a widely used feed for cattle. The problem for non-ruminants, like chickens, pigs, fish and humans, is a substance called gossypol. Ruminant stomachs render gossypol harmless, and the animals are able to digest the protein in cottonseed. 
     Keerti S. Rathore, a researcher at Texas A&M University, has found a way to genetically engineer the cotton plant so the seeds, and only the seeds, contain no gossypol.  The stems, leaves and flowers in Rathore's genetically engineered cotton do contain gossypol, which serves as a kind immune system for the plant. Geneticists discovered a way to eliminate gossypol from the whole plant in  the 1950s, but those plants were ravaged by disease and insects. 
     Rathore points out that his genetic tinkering removes something from cotton's DNA. Because there's nothing added, as in the case, for example, of Roundup resistant corn, there should be no philosophical objections to its use as a crop. Which would be a good thing, because the cotton currently being grown in the world could fill the protein requirements for 500 million people.
     Betsy Blaney, a writer for the Associated Press, prepared a report on the potential impact of cotton as a food-plus-fiber crop. You can read it here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-farm-scene-edible-cottonseed,0,748979.story


     The price of farmland has dropped around Grove Hill, Virginia, making it affordable for younger farmers. Brad Foltz, two of his brothers and their dad recently bought 170 acres of flat bottomland along the south fork of the Shenandoah River. They'll be growing mostly alfalfa for the region's horses. They paid $4,300 an acre for the land, which would have sold for $10,000 just a few years ago. Lancaster Farming correspondent Andrew Jenner talked to the Foltz family and prepared a report which you can read in our current edition. Or you can read it here:   http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2409 


     Another 30 seconds and they could have changed the oil. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/funny-pompiers-fireman-car-crash-wash-goodspeed/30250F956DAF3941D44C30250F956DAF3941D44C