Forages provide benefit to air, land and water quality, as well as benefiting wildlife.  However, their continued use in many regions depends of development of new uses for the industrial sector.  This paper will discuss the use of forages for carbon credits, a protein source and fiber source.  Such use would result in less frequent harvest, less need for timely harvest, and benefit to wildlife.  The benefit to wildlife occurs because of less frequent disturbance of nesting sites.  Forages generate significant carbon credits in many environments that will have economic value in the future.  Some countries have begun efforts to market carbon credits.  Proteins extracts from forages, especially legumes, can provide nutrients to humans and non-ruminants such as xanthophyll, a yellow pigment used in the poultry industry, and phytase, an enzyme that making phosphorus more available.  The biggest markets for industrial enzymes are washing agents and detergents where demand for proteases produced using genetic engineering methods amounts to more than 1,000 tons per year in Europe alone. A smaller amount of enzymes are used in the cellulose and paper industries which rely increasingly on environmentally friendly products that are chlorine-free.  Industrial enzymes grown in fermenters are relatively costly compared to using plants to grow the enzymes.  Further, forage fiber has been used to produce paper, everything from high quality paper to molded paper that is stronger than that made from wood pulp.  Commercial plants are making fiberboard from straw.  Recently, USDA researchers identified two species of bacteria: Ruminococcus albus, which lives in the rumen of cows, and Clostridium thermocellum, which is widespread in the environment. that release enzymes which degrade alfalfa’s cellulose fibers to produce a slimy, sugar-based secretion that can replace most of the adhesive in fiberboard.