building with rice

A green building material that's actually... white.

Sticky rice, a staple in many modern Asian dishes, was also the secret ingredient in super-strong mortar used in China some 1,500 years ago, a new study suggests.

Much less carbon emissions than cement, by a long shot. But everything has some impact - in this case, agricultural land and water, at the very least. Growing rice as a construction material would be a bit like using farms for producing corn-based ethanol, but I just love the low-tech aspect of it. [via kottke.org]