Future Uncertain (2021)

“To grow mushrooms on any kind of scale, growers have to develop a keen nose for material to satisfy voracious fungal appetites. Most mushroom-producing fungi thrive on the mess that humans make. Growing cash crops on waste is a kind of alchemy. Fungi transform a liability with negative worth into a product with value. A win for the waste producer, a win for the cultivator, and a win for the fungi. The inefficiency of many industries is a blessing to mushroom growers. Agriculture is particularly wasteful: palm and coconut oil plantations discard 95 per cent of the total biomass produced. Sugar plantations discard 83 per cent. Urban life isn’t much better. In Mexico City, used diapers make up between 5 and 15 per cent by solid waste. Researchers have found that the omnivorous Pleurotus mycelium – a white rot fungus which fruits into edible oyster mushrooms – can grow happily on a diet of used diapers. Over the course of two months, diapers introduced to Pleurotus lost about 85 per cent of their starting mass, when the plastic covering was removed, compared with a mere 5 per cent in fungus-free controls. What’s more, the mushrooms produced were healthy and free from human diseases. Similar projects are underway in India. By cultivating Pleurotus on agricultural waste – by enzymatically combusting the material – less biomass is thermally combusted, and air quality is improved.“

Quote from Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

Published by Vintage