With little additional land for crop production, how will Africa’s expanding population be fed? Half the biomass produced by row crops is grain—the forgotten half is straw and stover. Grain straw is the largest tonnage and most pervasive organic agricultural waste in the world; its efficient recycling through ruminant animals could alleviate this wastage, with lower inputs of feed grains into the farming system and thus enhance economic as well as ecological sustainability of agriculture. Because the polymer lignin in straw prevents ruminants from digesting the cellulose, straw is almost useless as animal fodder. Technologies available from other systems can slightly lower or modify lignin composition, releasing much of the cellulose. Treating straw with urea or ammonia can release additional material, as well as being a nitrogen supply for ruminant bacteria, replacing the need for protein. If indeed very poorly digestible straw with its very low nutritional value can be economically converted into hay-quality material having highly enhanced caloric value as well as being a nitrogen source, using transgenically modified grains mixed with physical and chemical treatments, the straw and stover could fully feed 170 million more goats per year in Africa (or 500 million goats per year if grain yields were increased to match world averages), 80% more, to triple the present number. This would free billions of tonnes of grain for human consumption or for non-ruminant animals. The time has come to use accumulated knowledge from model systems to simultaneously deal with straw pollution as well as food security.