Chris Radburn, PA Wire / AP Photo
The day may be coming soon when the wretched-smelling chicken shacks of the countryside provide electricity for the city. The quirky experiment by scientists at Virginia Tech has crept into the state's gubernatorial race, where one candidate proudly exclaimed, "I love chicken waste!" Going green is such a major issue in Virginia that it is second only to the economy on lists of voters' concerns. Though the chicken-poo experiment is only in its early stages, the idea is to convert the waste down into "an oil that can be used for heating, a slow-release fertilizer, and a gas that the researchers hope will one day be recycled to power the machine." Some environmental advocates criticize the project as one that makes good headlines but does not actually solve the problem of renewable energy.