A History of Synthetic Fertilizers: From Europe to GuatemalaThe day is April 19, 2013 in West, Texas. While newspapers flood the streets and the airwaves say the death toll has risen to fourteen, sixty residents of the city are still missing. Two days ago an explosion at the West Fertilizer Company manufacturing plant caused a total of fifteen deaths, injured over 160 residents, and damaged and destroyed over 150 buildings and 50 homes. Ten of these dead were volunteers who were the first to arrive at the site of the fire that broke out in the factory and were soon consumed by the explosion that preceded the first flames. Federal law requires that the Department of Homeland Security be notified if anyone possesses more than one ton of ammonium nitrate, but what started as a fire led to a devastating explosion after the fire of about 540,000 pounds (270 tons ) of ammonium nitrate and 110,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. (55 tons) of anhydrous ammonia on site at the plant. Both of these chemical compounds have been essential components of synthetic fertilizers since the beginning of its commercial production, approximately one hundred years before this disaster occurred. The previous year West Fertilizer Company had paid a $5,250 fine to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Administration for unsafe business practices, but was still allowed to continue producing after regulators looked at farmers drive away with gallons of fertilizer held in unmarked tanks in the back of their trucks from the construction site. There are approximately 12,000 chemical plants, water treatment plants, and oil refineries near communities like West, Texas, in the United States. Another 400 high-hazard chemical plants operating in the United States...... middle of paper ...... balance of chemicals in the soil, organic fertilizers such as compost replenish the soil and slowly increase the organic content of del soil to reverse the trend of soil depletion while providing a healthier diet than commercially produced foods coated in ammonium nitrate.10 The traditional farming process has undergone serious alterations over the past century, but this does not mean that modern science and ancient knowledge cannot collaborate to produce safer and more efficient alternatives in the future. Comments: You have a good opening but could use a clearer thesis. Try including a little more information in your quotes. Why is it important to you that ammonium nitrate is used in both fertilizers and bombs? Make sure each of your paragraphs covers only one theme. You have a very interesting case study on the Maya and a really nice article overall.