Sunflowers are bringing new life to blighted neighborhoods of New Orleans. Will Bradshaw of Green Coast Enterprises tells host Steve Curwood that Project Sprout's test plot of sunflowers will not only remove heavy metals from the contaminated soil, the flower seeds will also be made into biofuel.

CURWOOD: It's hard not to smile at a field full of radiant sunflowers, and that's one reason why a redevelopment group in New Orleans is planting the giant blossoms in vacant lots, a bid to reclaim a badly blighted neighborhood near the superdome.

Not only will the sunflowers brighten people's lives, they'll also help power cars and trucks. Will Bradshaw is president of Green Coast Enterprises in New Orleans, and a partner in Project Sprout, which is based on a similar program at Pittsburgh. Welcome to Living on Earth, Mr. Bradshaw!

BRADSHAW: Hi.

CURWOOD: So I understand that you just recently planted your first test plot of sunflowers in New Orleans. Tell me about the area where you're starting. How big is it? Where is it located?

BRADSHAW: It is three of the four corners of the intersection of Jackson and Johnson, which is right adjacent to the B.W. Cooper housing project.

CURWOOD: So what did these lots look like before you started planting the sunflower crop?

BRADSHAW: They were largely overgrown. One of them had been filled with construction debris from what looked like a foundation excavation. So it had some pieces of concrete and rebar and a bunch of piles of dirt. And then grass and weeds and whatnot had grown over the top of that. Another had been used by a road crew illegally to store their materials, including some potentially contaminating product for curing concrete in a big 55-gallon drum that was just open. Another had an old boat that had been basically rotted in half and been left there and some tires and stuff like that. But they were all largely abandoned lots that had just been used for illegal dumping.

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