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Govt Gives $4 Million So Puerto Rico Can Recycle Food

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The U.S. government is giving $4 million to a Puerto Rican university so it can research composting agricultural waste.

The National Science Foundation granted $4 million to the University of Puerto Rico to investigate how to compost agriculture waste, known as biomass, to give soil the nutrients needed to sustain crops, the university announced Monday.

The project leaders hope the research will improve water retention in the soil, which is important in light of global warming. “We are focused on tracing the path that will allow us to find solutions crucial to the transition to sustainable use of water, energy and food problems,” Dr. Nelson Martinez, chemistry professor at the university and lead researcher on the project said.

“Adaptation to climate change is a matter of National Security,” Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said during the Climate Hub Roundtable in Puerto Rico last June.

Puerto Rican agriculture has suffered in the past decades due to a dismal economy. Locals were recently able to buy rice grown in Puerto Rico for the first time in 30 years, the Miami Herald reports.

Restoring Puerto Rico’s economy is critical in the U.S. territory’s struggle to repay its $70 billion debt to the U.S. government. The country defaulted on a huge payment last May.

The White House recently appointed a new oversight board to restructure Puerto Rico’s debt and change the schedule of payments. (RELATED: Here’s Your Guide To The Puerto Rico Debt Crisis)

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