'Cultivating mushrooms with trees' may be a way to collectively solve food problems and climate problems
In order to stop global warming, it is necessary to increase the area of forests and have trees absorb more carbon. However, in order to feed the ever-growing population of the earth, it is necessary to expand agricultural land, and the movement to cut down forests and convert them to agricultural land is accelerating. As a way to solve such climate and food problems at once, a research team led by Paul Thomas, an emeritus professor of natural sciences at
Edible fungi crops through mycoforestry, potential for carbon negative food production and mitigation of food and forestry conflicts | PNAS
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220079120
Growing mushrooms alongside trees could feed millions and mitigate effects of climate change, research finds | About | University of Stirling
https://www.stir.ac.uk/news/2023/march-2023-news/growing-mushrooms-alongside-trees-could-feed-millions-and-mitigate-effects-of-climate-change-research- finds/
Planting This Could Feed Millions And Lock Away Tons of Carbon : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/planting-this-could-feed-millions-and-lock-away-tons-of-carbon
According to Thomas et al., the global forest area has decreased by about 4.7 million hectares annually from 2010 to 2020, and the biggest factor driving deforestation is the demand for agricultural land. This presents a dilemma as more trees need to be planted to stop global warming, but trees must be cut down to feed an ever-increasing number of humans.
To stem this trend, Thomas and his colleague Alastair Jump's research team have focused their research on the edible mushroom Lactarius Indigo . Edible mushrooms contain protein in addition to dietary fiber and essential fatty acids , and may be a substitute for protein sources such as meat and fish.
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Lactarius indigo is a mushroom that can grow in symbiosis with living trees and can be cultivated in a wide range of areas from Costa Rica to the United States. According to Thomas et al., raising cattle for meat on a deforested farm produces 4.76 to 6.99 kg of protein per hectare per year. Replacing this with a combination of living trees and Lactarius indigo would produce 7.31 kg of protein per year on the same land area while maintaining the forest's ability to absorb carbon.
In addition, mushrooms can store carbon in the soil for a long period of time, and unlike livestock, there is no need to input large amounts of resources such as fertilizer, water, and feed. Through a combined analysis of ground-collected data and remote-sensing forest area data, Thomas and colleagues report that large-scale mushroom cultivation in forests can sequester 12.8 tons of carbon per hectare per year. increase.
On YouTube, a video has been released in which Mr. Thomas and others talk about the possibility of mushroom cultivation.
How Mushrooms Can Feed Millions While Fighting Climate Change-YouTube
'We published a paper on the work of Mycoforestry , which is about growing mushrooms with living trees, which has the potential to feed people and mitigate climate change,' Thomas said. .
“What excites me the most is that mycoforestry provides a path through which we can ease the conflict between food and forest management,” Jump said.
By growing mushrooms that serve as food in the same place as the forest, it may be possible to achieve both ambitious afforestation goals and food supply.
At first glance, plant-based agriculture seems to emit less carbon, but even grains and legumes, which emit the least carbon, emit more than they absorb.
However, mushrooms grown with trees can capture carbon from the atmosphere while producing food. If mushrooms were cultivated along with the global plantings between 2010 and 2020, they could have produced 18.9 million calories per year while storing carbon, Thomas argues. doing.
Already, it is technically possible to inoculate mushroom spores into seedlings, and after that it is a stage where commercialization and scale-up are necessary. “This food production system is highly scalable and realistic and can be a powerful means of absorbing greenhouse gases,” said Thomas. We can provide incentives with all the benefits that come with it.”
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