Fellow Story
Mallory assisted with project to turn winter rye stalks into biodegradable straws
You may have seen the videos – swirling masses of plastic and other garbage, including drinking straws, floating around the ocean and choking sea creatures who think these items are food.
Soon Mainers could have an alternative – a biodegradable “straw straw,” made from stalks of winter rye.
Alex Bennett, a Maine native now living in Boston, discovered such straws in Germany and, with the help of Maine farmer Charley Henderson and Maine grain expert Ellen Mallory, has planted two fields of grain – organic winter rye in Kingfield and red fife in Parkman – so that he can start his own business. Bennett just sent off his application for organic certification.