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Ever since having to fight castor bean plants in my backyard and a vacant lot next door in Caracas, where they grow almost like kudzu in Georgia and what is called "bamboo" here in New England, I've had the notion that there ought to be a use for this stuff besides as a purgative or lubricant for Bugattis. The stuff grows without fertilizer on the poorest soils where nothing else will grow, but if a cow or goat poops in the neighborhood it goes ecstatic. It requires minimal water, but you can't drown it with a flood or monsoon. So, recently I googled "Castor Bean Diesel" (try it) and lo and behold, those wily Brazilians at it again. It struck me that converting all those dried up oil fields in Texas into castor bean plantations might be an elegant move, and then there is New Mexico, Arizona, sub-equatorial Africa, the Australian Outback. "See the Outback in your Outback running on Outback Castor Diesel!" How does "The Oil-Rich Nation of Bangladesh" sound?" The possibilities are endless.
Bob S.
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