The magic of mushrooms

“Hello, Wellington Mushroom Plant.”

“Yes, I’d like to speak to your furniture division, please.”

Response in March, 2014: “I’m sorry, you must have been eating the wrong kind of mushrooms. And we don’t have a hallucinogenic division either.”

Response in March, 2015: “You’ll have to hold for several minutes: they’ve got three other calls waiting ahead of you. Can I connect you to our packaging or building departments in the meantime?” Yes, that’s right: the key to our future economic growth may lie right under our noses, in the lowly and unheralded mushroom. And that’s because of something called mycelia, which is the mushroom’s root material.

According to the Globe and Mail, there is a “mushroom revolution” under way. Organic material such as corn stalks or hemp hulls— essentially, agricultural waste—is innoculated with mycelia; which then grows fibres into the organic material and forms a strong composite. The resulting product has the potential, it is claimed, to reduce the need for plastics, and therefore create a boom in green manufacturing. “When you’re done with it, you throw it into the garden and it feeds other things,” says one booster. Another notes, a touch redundantly, that mycelia materials are “the most ubiquitous thing on the surface of the earth.”

This is not small potatoes. One company has grown from a small lab to a 60-person shop, and counts Dell Computer among its customers. The proprietor notes that the plastic foam industry spends about $2 billion annually, and that his product is not only green but competitive in price. A packaging materials company with annual revenue of over $7 billion has also signed on to have the company design one of its manufacturing plants.

The range of potential products is staggering: wallboard, bricks and mortar, insulation and other building materials, furniture—even surfboards and a housing project are in development. Mycelial products can be formed to a regular shape, and covered with paints or laminates; or they can be allowed to grow and emphasize their organic origin. “Mushrooms are transformative, between states, and that’s a very interesting place to be, esthetically,” said one developer. “They’re indeterminate and alien, and kind of grotesque.” Hmm. Sounds like the Wellington mushroom plant had better open up a hallucinogenic division as well, just to hedge its bets.

From a County standpoint, what better way to disregard the winegrowing industry as a driver of economic growth and look to something real and tangible that has for too long been buried in the manure pile? Who would have guessed that the pony would be hidden there all along, looking like a mushroom?

And from a provincial standpoint, what better way to find a face-saving way to step back from the Green Energy Act? Our premier could point out proudly that shifting to mycelia production would create just as much green energy as a forest of wind turbines, with manufacturing jobs thrown in as an added benefit. Come to think of it, if we are to have turbines because of the need to save face, why not call for the turbines themselves to be made out of biodegradable mycelia— that is, the ultra-fast degradable kind, that will be gone in, say, a year or less.

Or, better still, the County could look for a win/win solution and encourage the making of mycelia-derived biodegradable wine bottles. Just think of the cachet that might be associated with being the first to market with such a green and red or green and white solution. But we’d have to hurry up: one company is already using mushroom foam to package wine bottles.

Who knows, there may be a tie-in with Essroc and its products. After all, Essroc itself says it is “more than a cement company.” It is a “synergy of people, products and performance…global leaders in cement, building materials, related technologies and research.” It has made a sustainability pledge, including, among other commitments, “to focus on renewable energy sources and efficient use of energy and resources.” If this idea takes off, I can just see County mushroom bricks being offloaded via the Essroc terminal to building sites around the world.

Of course, if biodegradable products can be made from mushroom roots, it might be possible for the County to become a centre of excellence for the research and development of other root-centred products to supplant plastics. How about zucchini, or pumpkins? Just think of the pleasure it could bring to be able to decline a neighbour’s ‘gift’ of five massive zucchini, on the basis that they are put to far better use if recycled as part of an organic product that would replace plastic. I admit it: I’ve got the magic of mushrooms still spinning around in my cranium. I need to come down to earth a little bit. Time for some mushroom soup—made, of course, with fresh mushrooms purchased from the Wellington Mushroom Plant factory store.

dsimmonds@wellingtontimes.ca