Can mushrooms save the world? This Ontario farmer thinks so
CBC
Murray Good truly believes mushrooms can save the world.
"They're not here by accident," he says. "I believe mushrooms can heal the Earth and heal humanity."
The mushroom farmer and owner of Whitecrest Mushrooms in Putnam, Ont., has been growing fungus for 20 years and says, we, as a species, are just starting to see the potential in the mycelium that grows beneath our feet.
He grows more than 40,000 pounds of mushrooms every week — the equivalent of an unloaded tractor trailer and demand keeps climbing, especially when it comes to the specialty mushrooms like lion's mane that have become all the rage in health circles because of the long-held belief they have medicinal benefits.
"They were usually around eight to 10 per cent of the market. They are now increasing to 12 to 15 per cent. So they're really kind of they are coming into their time and, from a culinary point of view, they carry a lot of different flavours."
The lion's mane mushroom is white and looks like a shaggy truffle. Long prized in Chinese medicine as a brain tonic, 21st-century science is just starting to give it its due.
A recent study out of the University of Queensland found the mushroom improved nerve growth, improved memory and could prevent some neuro-degenerative disorders, such as dementia.
Good grows them, powders them and puts them in capsules, which are sold as a mental wellness product to be taken as micro-doses to help improve brain health.
It's just one of an ever-expanding list of products where mushrooms play a key role.
Good's mushrooms are used in dog food and human food alike, as a way to stretch meat, making it moist, giving it more volume and enriching it with nutrients. His mushrooms are used in mycelium bacon and, believe it or not, the backseat of the latest model of the Mercedes Benz — as a leather.
WATCH | Why Murray Good thinks mushrooms can save the world:
"The 2024 electric Mercedes is going to have a mycelium leather interior. Leather jackets, running shoes, purses, all that kind of stuff, it's so diversified."
Good isn't the only farmer in the business. Shogun Maitake, which recently opened in London, Ont., grows maitake mushrooms that are used as a gourmet ingredient in some of North America's top restaurants and what isn't eaten is powered and taken as a wellness capsule thanks to the maitake's long-standing reputation as a cancer killer.
Aside from a slight dip during the pandemic, mushroom sales in Canada have seen steady growth since 2016, according to Statistics Canada. In 2021, mushroom farmers produced 151,894 tons of mushrooms, which translated into $654 million in sales with a significant portion exported to the United States.