Fungi in the Circular Economy

Dear Colleagues,

The circular economy is a model of production and consumption that aims to minimize waste and maximize resource utilization. Mushroom production offers a sustainable solution to such problems by converting agricultural waste into highly nutritious food, while also mitigating environmental pollution. In the context of medicinal and edible mushroom cultivation, it is rare to find companies that adopt the principles of the circular economy, which are based on sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Future perspectives within the framework of a green and circular economy highlight the potential of the biotransformation and fermentation of agricultural waste. For different marginal areas within this field, specific circular economy strategies are being developed, including the use of new biotechnologies. Mushroom producers tend to use energy-intensive industrial facilities with inputs from regions far removed from their production process. They typically produce significant amounts of waste, including spent substrates, which cause environmental contamination and must be disposed of. Therefore, a target for the future of this industry is to optimize the fermentation process’s chemo-physical and technical parameters to grow mushrooms using agroindustrial byproducts sourced from agrocompanies to produce food or medicine.

Prof. Giuseppe Venturella
Dr. Lillian Barros
Topic Editors