Rice, straw and coconut the new alternatives to wood

By Fiona Graham
Technology of business reporter, BBC News

You've found the house of your dreams.

Or it will be when the renovations are done. After years of grotty flats and poky "starter homes" that ended up being second and third homes too, that windfall from great-aunt Annie is going to be put to good use.

More than anything you want to have some beautiful timber features both inside and out - but without destroying a small corner of the Amazon basin to do it.

Would your next thought be rice? Possibly not.