Dear Colleagues,
It is projected that by the year 2050, close to 7 billion people will live in urban and peri-urban areas. This fast expansion generates many problems, e.g., waste discharge and deterioration of the urban environment. It is estimated that, yearly, 1/4 of the calories produced in the world are lost or wasted. Simultaneously, 1/3 of the urban population globally live in slums and suffer from food insecurity. Waste disposal is a big challenge for cities all over the world, particularly for organic waste, since landfilling leads to greenhouse gas emissions, and simple dumping is a waste of valuable nutrients and energy still remaining in the waste. Fungi present the unique ability to degrade recalcitrant organic matter (fiber) while converting this efficiently to both protein (mushrooms) and plant available nutrients, e.g., advantage of fungi in rapid recycling of organic resources, where AD and composting are not enough. As mushroom production is based on (often troublesome) agricultural, horticultural, and forestry wastes, it matches waste management policies well. At the same time, it transfers that waste to high-quality, nourishing, even gourmet, foods. Additionally, to maintain the assumptions of a zero waste economy, the use/reuse of spent mushroom compost/substrate needs to be addressed.
This Topical Collection aims to stimulate and collect research articles on mushroom cultivation on new types of wastes such as coffee grounds, AD digestate, food waste composts, fibrous composts from urban wastes, and spent mushroom compost; new approaches to mushroom cultivation such as urban mushroom farms, vertical mushroom cultivation, cultivation of mushrooms in drastic conditions (extremely dry and hot or cold environments), and cultivation in loop systems; the use of SMS from mushroom cultivation: plant substrate additive, soil recultivation medium, AD source, pelleting for heating purposes, feed for animals, reinoculation with other mushroom/fungi, etc.; cultivation of rare species of mushrooms emerged in cultivation because of climate change conditions such as drought and decreasing farmland. It must be kept in mind that this mushroom cultivation must represent the basis for efficient and sustainable mushroom cultivation under a changing environment.
Dr. Agnieszka Jasińska
Collection Editor
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