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OPINION
Friends of the environment
Thinking about an environmental subject to write on, I realized I had been thinking too small. The mushroom industry itself is a great example of an industry that is environmentally friendly. Not only is the cultivation of Agaricus bisporus an environmentally friendly industry, it is getting more and more so every year. Permit me to explain. By Ray Samp
I’ve always taken a degree of satisfaction that my career is with an industry that produces a healthy, nutritious food for humans out of waste products, or at least by-products. The standard compost for- mula uses straw, a by-product of wheat production, and poultry waste, a waste product of the poultry industry, and gypsum. Many compost operations use stable bedding, which is a waste product of a by-product! This turns nuisance material that would normally go to land fill into useful product. Beyond those materials sometimes even the gypsum is recycled from the pharmaceutical industry or from waste of the plaster or dry wall industry. Beyond composting, raw materials used for spawn and sup- plement are natural and can be waste products such as feather meal. Wastewater pollution has become a thing of the past at great benefit to our growing operations. Water used in the compost process is commonly recycled so that nothing flows into pristine streams or af- fects the ground water. Additionally water demand has decreased because each composting site has become a large catchment basin, so as rain falls it is caught, stored, and used decreasing exterior (ground or municipal) water usage. Also because of less chemical usage in growing facilities, its waste- water is usually directed toward the composting site as well.
Recently installed bio- filter at Coenegrachts Substraat compost
plant, Riemst, Belgium. Odor control is one of the primary concerns
of composting facilities and biofiltration is one of the least expensive and most effective treatment options
Photo: Roel Dreve
The rapid advance of in-vessel (bunker) composting has greatly reduced the footprint required for ma- king compost thereby freeing up land for other uses. In fully enclosed bunkers pollutants can be captured to reduce air pollution. Additionally making com- post aerobically in bunkers has cleaned up the air of noxious odors and shortening the duration of the composting process dramatically, while improving the product (compost) for higher mushroom produc- tion. Beyond that some operations use heat exchan- gers to extract the heat exhausted from bunkers for use in greenhouses or other parts of the mushroom growing process. I guess this is a win/win/win/win/ win/win situation! How good is that? Further in the cultural process the development of bulk phase II and phase III has added more efficien- cy to the process. Bulk phase II systems do not requi- re steam, thereby saving fuel, but also the in-vessel concept makes efficient use of air so no cooling is required for cool-down. Although some cooling is usually required for phase III, less is required per ton of compost. Then since supplementation is done after spawn run in phase III operations, it reduces the heat load (less cooling requirement) and less protein denaturing is required for the supplement itself. There may be a way to go before casing raw material become more environmentally friendly, but work has and will be done in the future. Spent mushroom compost has been successfully used for casing soil in the past and recent trials suggest that it might return. Other materials I’ve heard trialed for use as alternatives such as lumber mill pulp and processed recycled paper. The aspect of mushroom culture that continues to be an area of consumption is electricity for cooling. The essence of mushroom culture is environmental control and since the organism evolves heat, cooling is required. Having said that, our industry has be- come much better at reducing cooling requirements. Technology has been the means of improvement here. Modern computerized environmental control programs are commonly used to take full advantage of outside air to control a growing room when it is advantageous to do so. Using more air volume in- stead of cooling or recirculating more air in times of
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