Making some North American history, Canadian Geographic published its annual environment issue on paper made from wheat, a first on the continent. The issue is being printed on sheets made with wheat straw — what’s left of wheat after the grain harvest.

The magazine says adding agricultural waste to pulp from trees could offer farmers a new source of revenue and cut the demand for pulp from the continent’s boreal forests…The wheat-straw pulp used in the making of the issue was imported from China, where papermakers have been using wheat and rice for centuries.

Why wheat straw? Unlike oats and barley, the two other major cereal grains grown on the Prairies, wheat straw is not used for animal feed. It becomes bedding for livestock, and some of it is plowed back into the soil. But roughly 30% of it is simply the waste by-product of a crop that is valued for its grain alone. Canada remains one of the world’s great wheat growers, which means there is a vast amount of unused wheat straw - an estimated 21 million tonnes, which could be turned into eight million tonnes of pulp and enough paper for 20 million magazines. That straw could be a new source of revenue for farmers willing to bale and sell it to pulp-and-paper companies.

About 20% of the pulp used for this issue was made from wheat straw.

Via Red Dot Campaign.