Farmers Make Money and Paper from Crop Waste
The paper production process at Fresh Press. Tiffany Jolley/WILL
A report from the US Department of Agriculture several years ago found that farmers can do more with the stems, leaves and other materials leftover after harvest than plow it back into the soil. One option is to sell it to make paper products.
Eric Benson launched a company called Fresh Press in Champaign. He says a forty-pound bale of leftover prairie grass can generate about five-hundred dollars of additional income for local farmers. He talked with Illinois Public Media’s Tiffany Jolley about the process and its economic and enviromental implications.