The government says it makes no sense to allow much of the country's best soil to lie fallow while farmers struggle to squeeze a living from minuscule, dust-blown fields.

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Land used to grow biopharmed corn, for example, would have to lie fallow for the following season, a requirement that would promote soil erosion and whose expense would discourage many farmers from biopharming.

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Observers say that it would be a mistake to let the network lie fallow and not be used in any way during Obama's presidency.

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Other emergency plans call for letting huge tracts of farmland lie fallow to ensure a 50-day supply, in hopes that the drought will break.

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The idea of the new Brownfields law was this: To encourage redevelopment of the 450, 000 brownfield sites that would otherwise lie fallow, the government needed to provide liability protection to developers who took certain reasonable steps before and after buying a property.

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White space devices offer a creative and efficient way to use spectrum that would otherwise lie fallow.

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