Lab grown wood

[Ron Wenrich]

Are sawmillers on the endangered species list?

We can now 3D print as much wood as we want without cutting a single tree

I find it interesting that they use zinnias as a fiber source.  I'm pretty sure I can get more fiber from an acre of trees than an acre of zinnias, just due to the height growth.   They've always talked about hemp being a replacement for wood fiber in paper making.  The problem always revolve around getting enough fiber, how much soil depletion comes from crops like this, and the problems of stock piling material for year round production.  

They already have 3d systems set up for using wood waste.  MIT is working with zinnias while the Univ of Maine built a house with 3d wood from wood waste.  

First 100%Â bio-based 3D-printed home unveiled at the University of Maine - UMaine News - University of Maine

[barbender]

I don't know about zinnias. I've heard hemp touted as the next forest saving great thing. We have a Huber OSB mill in the works locally, and some environmental activists don't want to see it and said we should farm hemp for fiber instead. I don't know if they mean that we should do it locally, or as with most of these people, it just magically happens "somewhere else". 

 Of course, if we did it locally, we would probably have to convert forest acreage to hemp production. I don't know if they can actually see the glaring contradiction in that or not.