Executive Summary:
The demand for nutritional sources to feed the world's population continues to grow, and to meet this demand, industries have resorted to genetic modification or intensive farming practices to ensure higher yields per hectare. The amount of waste produced by simple commodities like coffee is staggering; only a small percentage of the coffee bean is used to make this beverage. In some African countries, invasive plant species are becoming a problem, and proposals to eradicate them are absurd. We are exploring how we can use this ubiquitous biomass waste as a substrate to produce affordable animal feed and fast-growing mushrooms that could alleviate hunger while creating jobs, sustainable incomes, food security, and empowering women in impoverished communities. We can use existing resources to bring about change and defeat malnutrition, creating hope and prosperity where it is most needed.
Keywords: waste, water hyacinth, coffee, mushrooms, animal feed, substrate, food security, sources of nutrition, renewable resources, genetic modifications, job creation, malnutrition, hope for women's empowerment, recycling, existing resources.
The power of mentors
When Mario Calderon Rivera organized a visit to the Colombian Coffee Triangle (Eje Cafetero) in 1994 to present the new Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) program I had established at the United Nations University (UNU) with the support of Professor Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, the Rector, and the Japanese government, I was tasked with examining future business models in a world without emissions or waste. Mario Calderon had already introduced me to Paolo Lugari (Case 105), but since I was responsible for designing new economic models that would support the Kyoto Protocol (an agreement among all nations to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change), which was to be adopted three years later in 1997, he wanted to impress me with the untapped opportunities of the Andean tropical highlands. Mario was more than a mentor; he was the godfather of my eldest son, which speaks to our close relationship and mutual appreciation.
The mushroom entrepreneur
After a long flight from Asia, I was invited to lunch with researchers and entrepreneurs at an open-air restaurant outside Manizales, Colombia, and was seated next to Carmenza Jaramillo, who introduced herself as a bankrupt mushroom entrepreneur. Carmenza went on to explain that her company had been declared bankrupt by the court that very morning. She emphasized the difficulty of obtaining the quality substrate necessary for mushroom cultivation, the complexity of compost production, and the capital- and energy-intensive nature of growing button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus). I had just landed in Latin America after a meeting in Beijing, China, hosted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where food security for a world of 10 billion people was a major topic of discussion. Listening to Carmenza Jaramillo's years of dedication, the research teams she mobilized, and the lost capital and jobs, it struck me that growing button mushrooms in the tropical highlands of the Andes is as absurd as growing coffee in greenhouses along the French Loire. While everyone agrees there's a demand for coffee in France and that a cup in a local café is a cherished tradition, no one claims to have the soil or climate to grow coffee there. If anyone were to attempt it, the endeavor would be ridiculed because it's virtually guaranteed to fail. The growing conditions aren't right, and the costs of adapting the site are too high. Following this same logic, it's obvious that Carmenza must have gone bankrupt, and the only one who profited was the Dutch equipment supplier.
Genetic modifications and limited sources of nutrition
The lack of ideal soils, climates, and crops leads to the demand for genetic modification to feed the world. If we cultivate only a few crops globally and expect the same high yield under vastly different conditions, then we are abstracting ecosystems and must apply a potent cocktail of modified seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides to have any chance of success. If, on the other hand, we are willing to discover the unique conditions that would make local agriculture highly productive by harnessing local biodiversity, then we will create food security and resilience while moving toward abundance.
Beyond the challenge of the limited number of crop varieties, there is an overemphasis on grains and meat as sources of nutrition. As long as the focus remains solely on wheat, rice, corn, and livestock farming dominated by chickens, cows, and pigs, we are missing many opportunities to generate nutrients from widely available, rapidly growing, and renewable resources.
Another challenge is that each food production cycle is treated as a standalone operation. We miss out on a great many opportunities because our competitive models focus on building businesses tied to core competencies. This narrow focus eliminates the possibility of cascading nutrients and energy, rendering the overall food production system inefficient and incapable of feeding everyone in the world. Even if we were ever to succeed in feeding everyone using the current system of chemical and genetic controls, the poor quality of food would exacerbate obesity, diabetes, and malnutrition.
Opening up a new world of mushrooms
From the very beginning of the ZERI program at UNU, we argued that we had to use what we had, which includes the five kingdoms of nature: plants, animals, fungi, algae (Protista), and bacteria (Monera). When I attended the Beijing meeting mentioned earlier and got to know Professor Shuting Chang, he opened up a whole new world of fungi to me. It's hard to avoid talking about fungi once you understand their potential for food security and job creation.
Professor Chang is recognized, along with Dr. Philip G. Miles, formerly a professor at the University of Buffalo in Amherst, New York, as the leading mycologists who established a new standard for fungal science. They met in 1978 when Dr. Miles was a visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. They published several books together and collaborated on both scientific research and its translation into industrial initiatives, notably through the World Society of Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products.
At first, I couldn't believe the figures, but Professor Chang reported on a two-year study he had undertaken for Kraft Foods in 1994. As Dean of the Biology Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Chang was contacted by the American food company to address the question of what to do with the enormous amount of coffee waste that would appear in China when the Chinese began drinking coffee. The Chinese currently consume large quantities of tea, and the tea leaves are discarded. Professor Chang learned that when coffee is processed centrally, only 0.2% ends up in a cup of instant coffee. Thousands of tons of waste left over from the process of extracting the soluble portion are considered byproducts. When Professor Chang and his team analyzed the remains, which came from both farms and industrial processing centers, they noted, as biologists, an excellent oil and a unique fiber.
Coffee waste for mushroom cultivation
Professor Chang informed Kraft Foods that coffee grounds were an ideal substrate for growing mushrooms. He presented a photographic review of pleurotus (Pleurotus sp.), shiitake (Lentinula edodes), and reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) mushrooms that thrive on this fiber-rich material, which has been sterilized during the brewing or soluble extraction process. Kraft Foods thanked Professor Chang for his report but decided not to pursue any of his suggestions for converting these unique findings into industrial initiatives. This explains why Colombia's message landed on very receptive ears. The story of Carmenza's bankruptcy and Mario Calderón's desire to build a new industry around the coffee region—one that wouldn't replace coffee but rather diversify the coffee economy—seemed like an opportunity we all wanted to seriously explore. This approach is based on the principle of the blue economy, which advocates using what we have and generating more, instead of cutting costs and competing on price. Professor Chang traveled to Colombia as a guest of the National Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) and was received by Dr. Jorge Cardenás Gutierrez, the president, and Emilio Echeverri (then administrative vice-president, and later governor of Caldas, the coffee hub of Colombia). The welcome from the Colombian academic community was tremendous. CENICAFE, the FNC's research institute in Chinchiná, was ready to adopt Professor Chang's research program and apply it to the realities of the high plateaus of the tropical Andes. Scientists from all the major universities converged on Carmenza and learned from Professor Chang, Dr. Lucia Atehortua and Dr. Ana Esperanza Franco of the University of Antioquia, and Dr. Julio Cezar Montoya of the Autonomous University of the West. Professor Chang indicated that thanks to coffee cultivation and the decentralized structure of production and processing, Colombia could become the second-largest mushroom producer in the world after China.
It was a privilege for the emerging ZERI network to benefit from this extensive experience, with a clear vision of opportunities and an active network of action-oriented scientists spread across the globe. Without this free and open access to science and implementation, ZERI programs would not have been able to translate science into action, creating jobs and ensuring food security using existing resources. Since our emerging network has been able to draw on this open source of knowledge, we have committed to Professor Chang to continue the same generous approach in all our initiatives.
The impact of coffee-based mushroom cultivation on women's empowerment
The FNC and CENICAFE embarked on a seven-year research program to test all the propositions and hypotheses that currently constitute one of the most remarkable new bodies of knowledge on fungi and the social impact of food production from agricultural waste. The strength of this research, based on laboratory tests, field programs, and community farms, lies in its integration of biological sciences, including genetics, with social sciences related to food security, malnutrition, and job creation in urban and rural areas. The research has clearly demonstrated the impact of coffee-based fungal cultivation on women's empowerment. All the major research institutions in the coffee region, particularly Hugo Salazar García, Rector of the University of Manizales, Ricardo Gómez Giraldo, Rector of the University of Caldas, Leopoldo Peláez Arbeláez, Rector of the Autonomous University of Manizales, and Cezar Vallejo Mejía, Executive Director of the Coffee Economy Research Institute, formed a strong network of academic support. Looking ahead 20 years since the first meetings in 1995, it is very gratifying to see that the 8th International Conference on Medicinal Mushrooms (IMMC8) will be held from August 24 to 27, 2015, in Manizales, under the chairmanship of Professor Chang. Colombia was a country that was nowhere to be seen on the world map of mycological sciences, and certainly not at the forefront of medicinal mushroom research. At IMMC8, the first office of the ZERI network, which was originally established in 1994 by Professor Carlos Bernal as the ZERI Institute for Latin America, will publish 22 original articles based on Carmenza's research, some of which were written in collaboration with Nelson Rodriguez (CENICAFE) and a group of peers, highlighting the lessons learned from this initiative. Carmenza and her team were guided by the vision of Dr. Mario Calderon, then president of the Manizales Chamber of Commerce, to reach the "madres cabezas de familia," or mothers of families. Their work in the slums, utilizing any available space or constructing simple bamboo huts, began with the scientific support of Dr. Sandra Montoya. The initial research received financial support from the Soros Foundation, and I was able to report to George Soros on the impact generated when we participated in the Al Gore Committee on Climate Change Solutions in New York in 2006.
This social program was countered by the initiatives of the industrial group Síndicato Antioquieño, which, under the leadership of Mr. Fabio Rico, then president of Chocolates de Colombia, decided in 1998 to invest $17 million in a large mushroom farm inspired by Professor Chang's proposals, with the goal of producing five tons per day. The scale of the investment and the cross-shareholding with the EXITO supermarket chain destabilized many small-scale investments in mushroom cultivation, which were forced to focus on the local market.
The work in Colombia developed in parallel with the work in South Africa and the South Pacific. Professor George Chan (see Case 101 on urban agriculture) and Professor Shuting Chang first met at the same meeting in Beijing. As a result, George's integrated biosystems were always complemented by the highly impressive and rapidly productive component of fungi. While fungal cultivation in Fiji never took off, the operations carried out in Southern Africa left a lasting impact on the continent.
Control of invasive species: The water hyacinth debate
The ZERI Scientific Council for Africa held a meeting in Namibia in January 1996 where discussions focused on the pressing needs of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region to find solutions to control invasive species such as acacia (Acacia adunca), callisia (Callisia repens), thistle (Cirsium japonicum), water primrose (Ludwigia peruviana) and water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). Professor Keto Mshigeni, vice-chairman of the scientific council and pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Namibia at the time, Professor Osmund Mwandemele, dean of the faculty of agriculture and natural resources at the same university, and Professor Athanasius Mphuru, dean of the faculty of agriculture and natural resources at Africa University in Mutare (Zimbabwe), decided that the focus should be on water hyacinth.
Considered an invasive species, water hyacinth was originally imported as an ornamental flower from Latin America. Professor Mshigeni once said, "The colonizers took our coffee to Latin America and gave us water hyacinth in exchange." However, this prolific plant isn't really the problem; the root cause of its rapid spread is massive soil erosion, which concentrates silted nutrients in riverbeds and especially in dams, along with the excessive use of insoluble synthetic fertilizers that leach from farmland and end up in waterways. These two problems combined provide a rich flow of nutrients to the wrong places.
The meeting in Namibia led to a field visit to the Kariba Dam on the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe in 1996. Professor Mishigeni and I traveled to Zambia to consult with Copperbelt University, where the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Study (UNU/IAS) had a regional office, to obtain local expertise. The observations were startling: chemicals, including DDT, banned worldwide, were reportedly being used to kill this invasive aquatic plant. In the unlikely event that this failed, an Australian herbivorous beetle (a weevil beetle of the superfamily Curculionidae) was being introduced to eat the floating plants. We were astonished by these ill-conceived solutions, as water hyacinth seeds germinate over time (within a decade), meaning these chemicals would need to be used for several years to achieve a lasting effect. The end result would be the destruction of all other aquatic life, and there was no answer to the question of what beetles would eat after the water hyacinth was eliminated. No one expected this invasive species to go on a diet or stop reproducing.
If we truly wanted to address water hyacinths, we should tackle soil erosion and fertilizers instead of killing the plants, which are merely a symptom of the problem and not its root cause. We shared the conclusion that instead of trying to eradicate this beautiful flower, which feeds on depleted minerals, we should harness the energy contained within these plants and transform it, through natural processes, into food for human and animal consumption. Our findings led to a scientific training program in Zimbabwe, coordinated by the University of Africa.
Water hyacinth: Becoming a preferred food and substrate for mushroom cultivation
The solution we wanted to test was whether water hyacinth could be transformed into a substrate for growing mushrooms. Professor Mphuru suggested that Ms. Margareth Tagwira, head of his laboratory at Africa University and a specialist in tissue culture, investigate the possibilities. Professor Shu-ting Chang agreed to come to Zimbabwe to assess the situation, develop a research program, and provide training. The research results were considerable and led to the publication of several scientific articles that puzzled nutrition specialists in both the social sciences and animal husbandry. Carl-Göran Hedén, MD, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, shared the news with the Academy and organized annual updates on the groundbreaking findings related to food security for five years. This project received funding from MISTRA, the Swedish National Foundation for the Environment. The hardiest bush animals do not eat the harvested water hyacinths. However, after cultivating mushrooms, this biomass became a preferred food source. As soon as Ms. Margaret Tagwira focused on mushroom production, productivity levels, measured by the quantity of freshly grown mushrooms on the substrate (dry basis), exceeded all expectations. Because the mushrooms digest the substrate and absorb nitrogen and moisture from the environment, productivity levels could reach 240 kg of mushrooms per 100 kg of dried water hyacinths. It wasn't long before local newspapers picked up the story and declared the end of hunger in Africa thanks to this invasive species.
Zimbabwean policymakers did not see things the same way. They feared that the success of growing mushrooms on water hyacinths would lead to a proliferation of man-made water hyacinths in all the country's waterways, potentially disrupting the water supply to hydroelectric dams. While trials had been successfully conducted at the Cleveland Dam in Harare, creating hundreds of jobs for women harvesting the thick carpet of water hyacinths, they were quickly banned by the administration.
While we understood the danger of a water hyacinth infestation, we also knew that importing chemicals, aerial spraying, and handling weevils represented a significant expense managed by a few delegates using foreign aid funds, whereas growing mushrooms would provide income for thousands of people. The second obstacle we heard repeatedly was that Africans don't eat mushrooms. This argument was not new, as we have also heard it in Latin America.
The African taste for mushrooms
It is true that for two generations, Africans had lost the habit and the taste for eating mushrooms. Rapid urbanization, large-scale deforestation and soil erosion, as well as the adoption of colonizers' food traditions, are the reasons. Africa is home to 5,000 edible mushroom species and boasts 20% of the world's fungal biodiversity. The only commercially available species is the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). With the help of our network of scientists in Southern Africa, which includes Dr. Dawid Abate of the College of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology, Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), Dr. Kenneth Yongabi Anchang of the Catholic University (Cameroon), and Professor Eduard Ayensu, Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Ghana and President of the Pan-African Union for Science and Technology, we discovered that there was not a single commercially available spore bank of native mushrooms on the entire continent. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Director-General of UNESCO and a member of the Club of Rome, drew my attention to a UNESCO-sponsored study confirming that two generations ago, 92% of African tribes used to gather mushrooms from the wild and dry them to bridge the gap between harvests. The abundance of nutrients for mushroom cultivation, boosted by the volume of water hyacinths, the richness of the biodiversity yet to be discovered, and the urgent need to engage in a large-scale program that provides food and nutrition to poor people in rural and urban areas, led to the conclusion that the ZERI network should embark on a broad program to inspire people, share science, discover nutrition, and develop industrial activities that generate food security and jobs, and provide a perspective of hope. Ms. Thelma Awori, then Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, saw the potential for women's empowerment and encouraged us to pursue it, with the support of Anders Wijkman, UNDP Policy Director and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. While our scientific network quickly found a receptive audience among the few mycologists in the region, we concluded that the future of mushrooms in Africa would not be limited to another research program or the development of another export industry that would only generate foreign currency. Inspired by the work of Professor Shu-ting Chang, we wanted to fully understand the potential of this activity for local populations, creating jobs and ensuring food security. We wanted to find a way to reach the marginalized, starting with rural communities, where we would focus on food, nutrition, health, and hygiene for the growing number of HIV orphans. Everyone agreed, and our goal was to launch an accelerated implementation. When tackling poverty, you can't ask those most deeply affected to be patient.
China: Mycology in the service of food and security
I organized a field trip to Qingyuan (清远) in Guangdong Province (广东 😉) coordinated
by Professor Shuting Chan. It was eye-opening: a city the size of San Francisco employed 250,000 people in urban mushroom cultivation. We visited three of China's 100+ research institutes, and I was impressed by how mycology (the science of fungi) had become a widespread skill, with the sole objective of providing food and security.
While China was exploring the market economy, the world of mushrooms—from science to production, marketing, and even exports—was highly decentralized. Therefore, it was decided to pursue a similar strategy. We learned from China that the key to success lies not in understanding genetics first, but rather in having dozens, hundreds, and thousands of farmers adopt mushrooms as a component of their productive lives. of their daily diet.
Moving forward: Zimbabwe's mushroom production centers and university degrees
Once we had a clear idea of the path forward, we joined forces and, with Professor Chang's unwavering support and participation, took the first steps, beginning in Zimbabwe. Although it wasn't "an obvious choice" for many, we wanted to show our respect for the pioneering role of Margaret Tagwira, who was supported by her husband, Dr. Fanuel Tagwira, who later became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Africa. Professor Chang wasted no time in ensuring that the key people we decided to work with received high-level, hands-on training in China, through UNESCO fellowships coordinated by Dr. Edgar J. DaSilva from the Paris headquarters. The University of Africa in Mutare became the first "sprout," soon followed by the University of Namibia. The University of Africa was only established in 1992, and the older University of Namibia had to be completely restructured after independence and the end of apartheid in 1990. Cecil Rhodes bequeathed his estate in Rhodesia to the Methodist Church, which decided to return the land to the Zimbabwean people with an endowment of nearly $100 million to establish a university over the next century. The primary objective of the new university was to reverse the decades of apartheid under which Africans were denied access to university degrees in agricultural sciences. This situation was at the heart of the self-fulfilling prophecy that, once the white man left, agriculture would collapse. Both universities decided to focus on food security and created faculties to reverse this planned ignorance. Mushroom cultivation has been adopted as one of the new priorities due to the desire to go beyond standard agricultural practices.
Support for orphaned girls
Margaret Tagwira added a strong social component to food security plans by targeting orphaned girls. With Professor Chang's support, she initiated a research program which she then adapted to available local resources and the needs of the population. While Colombia began investigating the nutritional value of mushrooms using coffee waste, Zimbabwe started the program with water hyacinths, and Namibia used brewer's grains and elephant grass as a starting point. Ms. Tagwira established a local network of villagers around the African University of Mutare to train orphaned girls, and the first 15 girls spent a few weeks at the campus. These girls, aged 10 to 12, returned to their villages with all the basic skills necessary to start mushroom farming. To everyone's surprise, within a few months of completing their training, 13 of the 15 girls were married. The fact that the girls had acquired the skill of producing food increased their "value" on the market, allowing the "guardian uncle" to sell them into marriage where he would receive four or five cows in exchange.
One girl named Chido refused the offer of marriage and a "secure life." Ms. Tagwira was very clear in her communications: "This girl with green and gold fingers will be forced into marriage unless she has a father." Little did I know that the father would be me.
Chido: An Unexpected Journey
When I met Chido a few months later, we reached an agreement: I would be her father, and she would fulfill her dream of rescuing girls from the slavery imposed by uncles and cousins. Over the years, Chido has established herself as one of the best trainers, speaking with unique strength and diligence to women around the world and empowering them to move from being victims to becoming agents of change in their local communities, resisting abuse and ensuring food security. Since Chido wasn't ready to leave Zimbabwe, Ms. Tagwira not only offered to be her adoptive mother but also trained her for years in the University of Africa laboratory, making her one of the youngest experts in tissue culture.
Chido was only 16 when Poonam Alhuwalia, who had been leading the YES campaign from Boston, USA, for years, organized the 2001 Youth Employment Summit at the United Nations in Nairobi, Kenya. Half the UN conference room was in tears as Chido shared with the 2,000 guests from around the world that children orphaned by HIV should not be seen as victims, but rather as those who want to be trusted and given a chance to change the world. It was clear that "reaching the forgotten" involves an empowerment rarely seen when discussing only children who have lost their parents. When a strong spirit and unwavering determination combine emotion with the science and art of mushroom cultivation, we set in motion a powerful process of transformation. Chido then eclipsed her adoptive mother's work and, with the agreement of Fanuel Tagwira, then vice-chancellor of the University of Africa and key person in the Rockefeller Foundation's LEED program, she embarked on mushroom cultivation to initially provide food for her small family nucleus consisting of her almost blind grandmother and her younger brother, and to earn enough additional funds to finance her brother's schooling.
Putting change into motion
The mushroom farms Margaret started on the outskirts of Mutare were generating income through sales at local markets and achieving productivity levels that would make any professional envious. From this small initiative, we developed a program in which Margaret, and later Chido, visited villagers and offered to prepare a mushroom-based meal for them. We won people over by appealing to their taste buds, and when their children said they enjoyed the flavor and high nutritional value, many wanted to know how they could make it themselves.
The Mutare team organized "mushroom safaris" during the rainy season, finding wild mushrooms that have been part of the local diet for centuries. They practiced tissue culture and operated spore banks that provide mycelium (mushroom seeds) for local production. The farms multiplied, and the training techniques, tailored to the needs of rural communities, proved highly effective.
Chido decided to forge his own path and gained practical experience through extended visits to India in 2006, Colombia in 2007, and by designing field projects in Australia with Aboriginal communities. Through his work with women from the lowest castes in India and schoolchildren in New Delhi, in cooperation with Development Alternatives (DA) and with the support of Dr. Ashok Khosla, then President of DA and Co-President of the Club of Rome, Chido discovered how the science and art of mushroom cultivation can be integrated with culture and tradition, particularly the culinary skills of mothers worldwide. This international exposure culminated in a series of training programs that Chido wanted to lead for orphans in Zimbabwe. Thanks to cooperation with Marianne Knuth from the village of Kufunda, Dutch entrepreneur Robi Valkhof of the Caos Foundation, and the network Chido has built over the years, an initial group of orphans from Karoi, Zimbabwe, were trained in mushroom cultivation.
The mushrooms are part of a broader initiative that includes hygiene (a clean environment increases productivity) and self-esteem. Since many of the orphans had been victims of abuse, primarily by immediate family members, it was essential to strengthen their emotional intelligence. Brooke McDonnell and Helen Russell, the founders of Equator Coffee and Teas, based in San Rafael, California, wanted to promote Chido's vision in California during his visits and therefore sponsored his coffee-growing project on coffee waste in Tanzania through an organization called Sustainable Harvest. A team led by David Griswold and Sara Morrocchi enabled Chido to establish another regional production center.
The stories spread, and the demand for Chido exceeded her available time. She worked in Cameroon, Congo, and Ghana, sharing her experience and building one mushroom farm after another. The United Nations hired her as an expert, and these unique experiences made Chido so versatile that entrepreneurs from both the developing world and the industrialized world were eager to listen and learn from her wisdom.
Nikhil Aurora and Alejandro Velez drew on Chido's initial lessons to build their Back to the Roots (BTTR) mushroom farm in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, working with coffee waste from Peet's Coffee and Tea. Willem Jan Bosman Jansen, a film distributor in the Netherlands, was inspired by this opportunity and began building upon Chido's background in cultivating mushrooms through GRO, a company that collected coffee waste from the La Place restaurant chain, in disused greenhouses left behind by the bankrupt flower industry in Egmont, some 60 kilometers north of Amsterdam. It would be too long to list all the projects Chido has been involved in. She has a hand in at least 200 mushroom farms across four continents. Despite her success and influence in shaping a new way of looking at mushrooms, her life as an orphan and entrepreneur has always kept Chido eager to learn more.
Animal feed and medicinal mushrooms
Ivanka Milenkovic published an article in 1998 on animal feed produced from leftover mushroom substrate in Elsevier Science while teaching and conducting research at the University of Belgrade. She later established her mushroom company, Ekofungi, outside the capital and received the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award in Serbia in 2014. Milenkovic trained Chido on using spent mushroom substrate to feed animals, particularly chickens, extending the food cycle with nutrition previously considered worthless to humans in a productive cascade from waste to food… and more food. Over the years, Chido's interest has shifted towards medicinal mushrooms, as many of the orphans and isolated communities she assists also require medicine. I met Mr. Han Sheng Hua in Qindao ten years earlier, and he invited Chido to learn about medicinal mushrooms at his farm in Hangzhou, China. China has pioneering entrepreneurs and over a hundred research institutes dedicated to mushrooms.
Mr. Han plays classical music (preferably Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) for his Ganoderma lucidum and has demonstrated, through years of scientific monitoring, that shiitake mushrooms exposed to music grow better. He produces some of the best medicinal mushrooms, free of heavy metals, which Dr. Robin Tan Mua Li transforms into potent medicines through his company, Primart, in Singapore. The medicinal mushroom network is very tightly knit. The quality of the mushrooms is often not checked. When I asked Professor Shuting Chang which products he knew of were the best, he immediately directed me to Primart.
I visited the processing facilities in Singapore and was impressed by how the Singaporean government had facilitated the construction of a medicinal mushroom processing unit, which is used by various companies. Since Robin and his team only needed access one day a week, the capital investment would have been too high for his independent business. Sharing equipment has therefore allowed Singapore's emerging group of medicinal mushroom companies, including International Advanced Bio-Pharmaceutical Industries, HST Medical Pte. Ltd., and Tong De Tang Can Rong Zhong Xin, to thrive alongside Primart. Thanks to the cooperation of Robin Li and Han Sheng Hua, Chido received intensive training in medicinal mushrooms and is now ready to return to her passion: providing a livelihood for orphans in Africa.
The future of hope
Chido's transformation from an abused orphan to an agent of change in remote villages, impoverished communities, and urban centers has inspired many people. She received support from Rotary clubs (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Zimbabwe), artists (Koen Vanmechelen in Hasselt), and entrepreneurs to establish her own center in Zimbabwe under the promising name "The Future of Hope." This title was borrowed from a Nobel laureate conference I helped organize in 1995 in Hiroshima, Japan. After a series of meetings with Elie Wiesel (1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate), we concluded that the world was losing hope, and that without hope, there is no future. We brought together 12 Nobel laureates to discuss this tendency for societies to adopt pessimistic outlooks, with the conviction that little could be done to reverse these negative trends. Asahi Shimbun, Japan's second-largest newspaper, headed by Sho Ueno, sponsored the event. Chido and I had our first conversation about her future in 1997, when she was only 11 years old. We agreed that we needed to work toward a hopeful future, and the best way to do that was to rescue girls abandoned by their parents because of the AIDS epidemic and find a way to empower them to become agents of change in their societies. This would bring hope, provided we had something tangible to show for it, and that came in the form of simple mushrooms.
The message of the past 18 years has resonated deeply, and many have been inspired by our pragmatic approach. Unfortunately, Chido's name and fame have led to a new form of abuse. A few self-proclaimed social entrepreneurs in Berlin coerced Chido into joining their new company, which bore her name. Over time, Chido realized she had made a poor choice and felt cheated. Her demand for a change in the company's direction, which had relied on the exclusive exploitation of her expertise and name, led her to adopt a business ethic specific to Europe. Chido's request to these "social" business partners was met with nothing but insensitivity. Indeed, mushrooms are a profitable business since raw materials are free, and the demand for freshly cultivated exotic mushrooms is high. While these painful exploitations driven by investment, profit, and selfishness are a reality, we all welcome the proliferation of new mushroom farms worldwide. The mushroom trade is booming. There are already 20 school farms in Zimbabwe and three times as many in Delhi. There are approximately 60 village mushroom farms in Ghana thanks to the initial program with AngloGold Ashanti, coordinated by Prishani Satyapal in the towns of Obuasi and Iduapriem, and UNDP promotion in the north of the country. Namibia is a place where no one would have expected the establishment and operation of 17 functional mushroom farms, making it an example in Africa that continues to spread to Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon. Uganda is the top-performing African nation, with over 300 mushroom farms between Entebbe and Kampala. It was thanks to the work of Professor Keto Mshigeni, who led the UNDP-sponsored Science Initiative on Mushrooms between 2000 and 2003, that the Southern African Mushroom Network, now coordinated by South Africa's CSIR, was established. This network comprises 30 mycologists who prioritize the social dimension of mushroom cultivation.
Professor Mshigeni also established the first medicinal mushroom research center at Hubert Kairuki Memorial University in Dar es Salaam, complementing medical studies with natural medicinal science. Kenneth Yongabi Anchang, an associate professor at the Catholic University of Cameroon in Bamenda, leads the network in West and East Africa, jointly with Professor Dawid Abate, who has helped establish around 100 mushroom-related initiatives in Ethiopia, including special programs for street children in Addis Ababa.
The strength of the network and the creation of approximately 1,000 farms across Africa would make many people proud and happy. However, the potential is a hundred times greater, and I am saddened to see how long it takes to create a much bigger impact. The missing link is not money, but rather passionate people who have mastered the science and are committed to making a difference on the ground.
This is what motivates researchers in Latin America, where the first seeds were also planted by Professor Chang, to adopt a similar approach. Ms. Carmenza Jaramillo, in Colombia, is pictured with Julio Montoya, Ana Esperanza Franco, Sandra Montoya Barreto, Edgardo Albertó (Universidad Nacional de General San Martín, Argentina), Angel R. Trigos (Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico), and Maria Angela Amanozas (Centro Nactional de Pesquisa de Florestas – EMBRAPA, Brazil).
While the original initiative began in Caldas, Colombia, an enthusiastic young scientist named Ms. Francenid Perdomo has established more than 80 production units on farms in El Huila, Colombia. Mexican Luis Martín del Campo created the "Seeds of Hope" network under the name "Sporah" and designed a modular business involving regions and cities throughout Mexico. His social enterprise, a true labor of love, relies on the support of major coffee chains like Starbucks, but also works closely with Perla Pacheco Cortez and the Mexican Association of Women Entrepreneurs (Associación Mexicana de Mujeres Empresarias or AMMJE). This initiative has the personal support of Laura Frati Gucci, president of the World Association of Women Business Leaders, and is spreading globally, driven by this incredible opportunity for women's empowerment.
Success beyond all expectations
This dossier on mushrooms would fill over a hundred pages if I were to dedicate space to each of the entrepreneurs I've been in contact with over the years. I must apologize for my inability to pay tribute to all those who deserve recognition. In the final section of this dossier, I would like to highlight a few extraordinary people I've had the privilege of meeting over the years. They have inspired me because they have succeeded against all odds.
Jasmin and Slay Herro, partners with the Australian Indigenous Minority Supply Council, attended one of my webinars in 2010 and wanted to implement mushroom cultivation in their Aboriginal community. Chido offered hands-on training, and the program took off thanks to the support of Campos Coffee in Sydney and Professor John Crawford, Coffey Chair in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Agriculture and Environment. The European network began in Switzerland in 1997, with Patrick Romanens Pilz GmbH in Sulgen, Thurgau. Patrick and his production manager, Michael Mannale, then founded Fine Funghi AG. They have continuously expanded the business and now supply 100 tons of shiitake and other exotic mushrooms from their farm in Gossau, near Zurich. A network was subsequently established in Spain, inspired by the work done in Colombia and the pioneering role of Chido. Iñaki Mielgo and Beltran Orío (Resetea – Responsible Mushrooms, www.resetea.es) are supported by the University of Santiago de Compostela. The Italian team began at the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2000 with Professor Luigi Bistagnino and Silvia Barbera, who demonstrated at the 2008 Slow Food Festival how all the coffee waste from this unique gathering of 300,000 people from around the world celebrating local and healthy food could be used to grow mushrooms on-site. This demonstration sparked hundreds of initiatives, and it would take hundreds of pages to cover all those we know of. We can confidently say that mushroom-related initiatives are booming. Funghi Espresso (www.funghiespresso.com) shows how a diverse group of young people can join forces and make it a success: Antonio Di Giovanni (agronomist), Vincenzo Sangiovanni (Oriental languages and architecture), Tomohiro Sato (Japanese entrepreneur in Italy), Camilla Piccinini (one of my students and an industrial product designer), and Raffaele Sangiovanni (information expert). Their Florence-based company will be present at the Milan World Expo this year, offering another platform after the mushroom farm we presented at the Hanover World Expo in 2000. The initiative was supported by the local team of mycologists led by Nicola Krämer (www.shii-take.de), who had launched their mushroom business just a few months before the Expo opened and benefited from a fantastic platform during the World Expo.
Cédric Péchard, a former executive at Oracle France, took the time to visit Chido in Zimbabwe and followed Ivanka's research in Belgrade. He joined the field trips to Ghana and decided to create the NGO Upcycle (inspired by my book Upcycling, published in 1999). He established an urban farm in Paris with the support of ESAT (the French employment assistance program), producing coffee in shipping containers in the heart of the city in cooperation with Fabre Coffee – a Kraft subsidiary. The circle has thus been completed since the beginning of the adventure in 1992.
Mr. Péchard then established a mushroom farm at the Aigrefoin farm in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, integrating people with physical and mental disabilities into the production process. While it took Péchard more than a year to refine the process, realizing that science must be complemented by art, he succeeded in bringing the product to market with a selling price of 13 euros per kilogram. Perhaps the most important platform in Europe is the conversion of the former tropical swimming pool in the center of Rotterdam into a mushroom training and cultivation center, which became RotterZwam (www.rotterzwam.nl), "zwam" meaning "mushroom" in Dutch. Siemen Cox, Mark Slegers, Nate Surrett and Melissa van der Beek are linked to the Blue Café, the Bright Future Lab and the Blue Consultants initiated by the network of blue economy practitioners in the Netherlands and led by Hilke De Wit, Jan Jongert, Patty Kluytmans and Jules Rijnierse under the general coordination of Charles van der Haegen, the director of ZERI Europe in Brussels.
"From Coffee to Mushroom" Initiative: Job and Income Creation
The "Coffee to Mushroom" initiative has involved thousands of people, created approximately 3,000 businesses, and mobilized cash investments of around $62 million, with the smallest investments ranging from hundreds of dollars to the largest (in Colombia) generating $17 million. These initiatives relate only to the work with which we have been connected and associated and are entirely separate from the large-scale investments in mushrooms, in which Professor Shuting Chang played a pivotal role. We know that these investments amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, including the world's largest mushroom farm in Indonesia.
We have only reported on our initiatives in Africa, Latin America, and Europe, with brief references to India and Australia. We estimate that the number of direct jobs created by these programs is 75,000 in agricultural activities. If we include all indirect jobs related to packaging, sales, testing, quality control, processing, drying, cooking, and catering, we need to add approximately 260,000 jobs. We
have no doubt that with this knowledge made available as an open source and the mindset to go beyond simply producing a mushroom and place these opportunities within a broader social and environmental context, we can hope that if we reached 3,000 businesses in 20 years, from 1995 to 2014, then we can reach at least 50,000 businesses in the next 20 years. It doesn't make sense to continue burning coffee waste to create energy, and safe energy at that. While we applaud composting, there are better options than stressing earthworms in compost bins with caffeine when we can obtain just as much food and benefits. One million tons of coffee waste at an industrial site will generate at least 500,000 tons of protein and at least €5 billion in revenue at just €1 per kilo, while also providing half a million jobs.
The time has come to realize that we can move from simply wanting to reduce our environmental impact to a proactive commitment where we do more good for people and provide cheap food for animals. It's about upcycling and upsizing; generating more with what we have helps us achieve many more social and environmental goals than we might imagine. This is the blue economy in practice: do more with what you have and be surprised by what you didn't know.
Gunter's Fables Translation
The mushroom trade inspired me early on to write three fables: fable no. 10, "Colombian Mushrooms," dedicated to Mario Calderon Rivera; fable no. 14, "Shiitake Love Caffeine," dedicated to Carmenza Jaramillo; and fable no. 23, "The Smart Mushroom," dedicated to Shu Ting Chang. These fables inspired the creation of this center in 1994, during my discussions about cultivating mushrooms from agricultural waste.
Documentation
www.ecomushrooms.com.au/
archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80362e/80362E00.htm
http://tal.tv/es/video/los-hongos-de-francenid-perdomo/
