Do cows eat rice husks? I don’t know if they do or not so perhaps rice husks are not a common ingredient in cattle supplies…but here is a mighty interesting use for rice husks.

A new way of processing rice husks to make concrete may create a boom in new green construction. Rice husks surround edible kernels of rice and are high in silicon dioxide. This is an essential ingredient in concrete. Scientists have determined that rice husks may be a viable option for building material but past attempts to burn it created an ash too contaminated with carbon to be useful as a cement substitute.

If this new method proves successful, scientists will begin construction on an full-sized furnace capable of producing 15,000 tons of rice husk ash annually. If production is scaled up to use all of the rice husks produced in the US, 2.1 million tons of ash could be produced each year.