Agricultural researchers, chemical engineers, and materials scientists from universities and companies around the world describe natural fibers that are being developed and used as viable alternatives to glass fibers, either alone or combined in composite materials, for automotive parts, building structures, and rigid packaging materials. In addition to addressing social issues such as plastic pollution and the looming end of petroleum, they say, such fibers are low cost, low density, and competitive in specific mechanical properties. Their topics include processing bast fiber plants for industrial applications, fiber-matrix adhesion in natural fiber composites, polyactic acid technology, lignin-bases polymer blends and biocomposite materials, and cellulose-based nanocomposites.