WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Can Simple Fruit Peels Revive Dead Land?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren boglebam here with another classic episode from Our earthWhile

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<v Speaker 1>host Christian Sager. This one has to do with some

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<v Speaker 1>awesome environmental research that almost never came to light. I'll

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<v Speaker 1>let Christian explain, Hey brain Stuff, it's Christian Sager. Imagine

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<v Speaker 1>if some of Earth's most barren waste lands could be

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<v Speaker 1>transformed into dense, productive forests by the most unlikely of helpers,

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<v Speaker 1>discarded fruit peels. It sounds like wishful thinking, but that's

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<v Speaker 1>exactly what happened. In the nineteen nineties. During a promising

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<v Speaker 1>ecological experiment, orange juice manufacturer del Oro plunked twelve thousand

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<v Speaker 1>metric tons It's around thirteen thousand, two hundred eight tons

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<v Speaker 1>of orange peels on top of bleak coasta Rican pasture land,

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<v Speaker 1>eventually transforming it into a lush, fertile forest. But it's

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<v Speaker 1>a success story that almost wasn't told. Del Oro donated

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<v Speaker 1>a seven acre or three hacked or plot on the

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<v Speaker 1>edge of the Wanna Caste Conservation area after being approached

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<v Speaker 1>by University of Pennsylvania researchers Daniel Jansen and Winnie hal

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<v Speaker 1>Walks who wondered how the companies discarded orange peels could

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<v Speaker 1>benefit the soil in The company deposited one thousand truckloads

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<v Speaker 1>of orange skins onto the degraded land as part of

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<v Speaker 1>the agreement, but rival orange squeezer Tico Fruit, sued del

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<v Speaker 1>Oro a year into the contract, claiming the company was

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<v Speaker 1>defiling a national park. Costa Rica's Supreme Court agreed, and

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<v Speaker 1>after only two years, the experiment came to a halt.

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<v Speaker 1>That could have been the end of the story were

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<v Speaker 1>it not for Timothy Truer, a curious ecologist at Princeton University.

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<v Speaker 1>In Team, Truer and a team of researchers traveled to

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<v Speaker 1>Costa Rica for unrelated research and decided to look up

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<v Speaker 1>the orange peel plot. The site's sign was so covered

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<v Speaker 1>with vines and the land so densely filled with trees

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<v Speaker 1>that it took the team years and dozens of site

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<v Speaker 1>visits to discover it. The team sampled and studied the

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<v Speaker 1>soil at the site and compared it to samples that

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<v Speaker 1>were taken in the year two thousand. It also noted

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<v Speaker 1>tree diameter and species from the orange peel site and

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<v Speaker 1>that of a nearby pasture that wasn't treated with peels.

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<v Speaker 1>The researchers found that the treated area had richer soil,

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<v Speaker 1>more tree biomass, and a broader variety of tree species,

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<v Speaker 1>including a fig tree with a circumference equivalent to three armspans.

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<v Speaker 1>The precise reasons for this one hundred and seventies six

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<v Speaker 1>percent increase and above ground biomass are still being investigated,

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<v Speaker 1>but the researchers contend dumping massive amounts of nutrient rich

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<v Speaker 1>organic waste had a nearly immediate effect on the land's fertility,

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<v Speaker 1>changing its lifeless soil into a thick, rich, loamy mixture.

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<v Speaker 1>The researchers proposed it's also probable that the orange peels

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<v Speaker 1>suppressed growth of an invasive grass that was keeping the

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<v Speaker 1>forest from flourishing. Not only is the rediscovery of the

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<v Speaker 1>experiment a boon for barren landscapes and agricultural waste, but

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<v Speaker 1>it also could have a major impact on Earth if

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<v Speaker 1>more companies institute similar environmentally friendly solutions to waste, the

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<v Speaker 1>resulting richly vegetated land could help isolate harmful carbon dioxide

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<v Speaker 1>in the air and improve Earth's polluted atmosphere. So consider

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<v Speaker 1>this an estimated fifty of all fresh produce in the

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<v Speaker 1>United States, or roughly sixty six million tons or sixty

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<v Speaker 1>million metric tons of produce is thrown away annually, making

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<v Speaker 1>it the single largest ingredient in American land thrills. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode was written by Loyal Dove and produced by Dylan

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<v Speaker 1>Fagan and Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots

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<v Speaker 1>of other green topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio or more podcasts.

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