Dr Colin McClung, ex-IRI, was co-recipient of the World Food prize in 2006 for this soil fertility work.

ECONOMIST: Letters

And still, the majority of terrorist plots uncovered in the past few years on US soil were the work of US citizens.

FORBES: America's Disgrace. (It's Bigger Than The Debt.)

Having spent long days on his uncle's farm, he knows what it's like to work the soil for a living.

FORBES: Bucking the downtrend

Having spent long days on his uncle's Effingham, Ill. farm, he knows what it's like to work the soil for a living.

FORBES: Bucking the downtrend

In June last year, the yard was ready to be seeded with grasses and wildflowers selected by the company's meadow specialist, Ed Yates, to work well with the region's hard-packed soil and dry conditions.

WSJ: Meadows Instead of Lawns Are in Fashion in Residential Landscaping

Whatever the lawmakers decide, though, this work will almost certainly continue--if not on U.S. soil, then elsewhere.

FORBES: Cloning's High Cost

But the real work of conservatives now is not at that superficial, topsoil level, it is in the deeper soil of policy and the tap root of values where conservatives need to toil now.

FORBES: Ignore The Pundits, Conservatism Doesn't Need An Extreme Makeover

Lutheran World Relief, a charity, is running cash-for-work schemes in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, in which workers build irrigation systems and replenish the soil.

ECONOMIST: The Sahel: Hungry again | The