Pretreating soil with ethanol protects plants from drought, study finds

Ethanol can help plants survive in times of drought says a new study. Adding ethanol to soil allows plants, including rice and wheat, to thrive after two weeks without any water. As ethanol is safe, cheap, and widely available, this finding offers a practical way to increase food production all over the world when water is scarce, without the need for costly, time-consuming, and sometimes controversial production of genetically modified plants.