Why mushrooms are a silver bullet for climate protection

Mushrooms are quite frugal. They don’t need much to thrive. They are an important part of healthy ecosystems and a valuable food for many people. They could play an important role in the fight against climate change. On the one hand by forests larger amounts of the greenhouse gas absorb carbon dioxide let, on the other hand, because one with it lots of food with little effort can make for humans.

Agriculture and CO2 sink in one

Like researchers from the British University of Stirling have figured outyou could also eat it wonderfully with mushrooms Resolve land conflicts between forests and fields. If arable land is lost due to afforestation, a hybrid solution could be created by growing mushrooms in the forest. They suggest that in afforestation projects so-called mycorrhizal fungi to spread more.

These fungi live in symbiosis with trees and stand with them root in contact. Through this increase their absorption capacity by a multiple. The fungi pass on water and nutrients to the trees and receive sugars in return, which are produced through photosynthesis. Certain mycorrhizal fungi improve that as well uptake of nitrogen through the tree, causing them to absorb more CO2 and grow faster.

“The biochemists of nature”

Typical mycorrhizal fungi include chanterelles and porcini mushrooms, which are also popular in Austria, explains Wolfgang Hinterdobler from the Viennese biotech start-up MyPilz. They would give trees fewer pests and less drought stress. young trees can benefit greatly from symbiosis when rooting seedlings into a Solution with fungal spores dives. The process not only sets a symbiosis in motion, it also has the effect of an inoculation. It puts the tree’s immune system in a state that better protects it from other fungi that can harm it.

“Fungi are nature’s biochemists. They’ve been in the business for a long time and don’t even want money for their work,” outlines Mark Stüttler Mushroom Research Center Austria the benefits of mushrooms. In his opinion, through their increased use, one could operate a natural type of agriculture and forestry, the plants without pesticides and fertilizers sustainable profitable and resistant to various environmental influences might.

Little space and water requirement

What sets mushrooms apart as a food is their extremely low resource consumption. As many know from sad experience, a damp basement is enough for mold to sprout. The Viennese company hat and stem takes advantage of the fact and collects coffee grounds an order placed in an old wine cellar oyster mushrooms to let grow. “One of the great strengths of mushrooms is that they require so little space and water,” says Manuel Bornbaum. Aside from coffee grounds, you can also use sawdust or wood shavings as a substrate.

Change the mind of mycophobic society

“Mushrooms are better meat,” the company’s co-founder is convinced. If you manage to put more mushrooms on your plate and thereby reduce meat consumption, you can achieve enormous CO2 savings. There is currently an unequal relationship: round 90 kilograms of meat consumed per capita and year are around in Austria 3 kilograms of mushrooms across from. According to Bornbaum, this is due to one “mycophobic” society. In Austria, mushrooms are often negatively associated with diseases, poison or other things. In Asia, on the other hand, there is a more “mycophilic” attitude. “In Tokyo there are stacks of trees in the park, where people cut off mushrooms and cook at home,” says Stüttler. The range of different types of mushrooms is also much larger elsewhere.

Wolfgang Hinterdobler understands the argument that mushrooms don’t taste good, “but in the end mushroom proteins often don’t look like mushrooms at all”. Instead, they form the Basis for meat substitute products like “vegan chicken nuggets”. “In this way you could address more people in the future. “It makes no difference whether plants or fungi form the basis. In any case, the carbon footprint is far better than that of meat.”