On the back of this hype, startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods shot onto fast-food chain menus and legacy meat processors like Maple Leaf Foods started investing heavily in the industry. More people were growing concerned about the environmental and ethical impacts of animal agriculture-particularly factory farming-fueling widespread speculation that plant-based meats could be key to edging out the real thing. “I think there is really going to be a niche of application,” said UC Davis professor Valeria La Saponara, an aerospace engineer who started working with mycelium several years ago. The popcorn-like mycelium flakes can “become anything you want,” from imitation burgers to plant-based steak. The Canadian Space Agency has even shown interest in Schneider’s work as a possible source of food for space missions. This long-overlooked organism has recently burst into the spotlight, with proponents saying it offers remedies to some of the ills of industrialization, like plastic pollution. The paste is mycelium, the so-called “body” of fungi. In an anodyne gray North Vancouver business park, Gavin Schneider is growing a whitish paste he believes will one day replace meat and feed astronauts on Mars. This story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |