MU21006 - Recycling spent mushroom substrate (SMS) for fertiliser in a circular economy
Key research provider: Frontier Ag & Environment
What's it all about?
This investment is developing models for a spent mushroom substrate (SMS) circular economy by improving the value-proposition of SMS for the end-user (primarily grain growers). The circular economy models for SMS recycling will be presented as practical case studies to equip Australian mushroom growers with an improved understanding of the options available for recycling SMS.
Previous research has found that SMS may be undervalued and highlighted the reliance of the Australian mushroom industry on wheaten straw as one of the main inputs in the production of mushroom growing substrate.
The effects of drought, climate change, changed farming practices, and increased competition from the feedstock industry have reduced the availability of wheaten straw to mushroom growers and have driven up prices.
The application of circular economy principles has the potential to strengthen linkages between the mushroom industry and grain growers. Opportunities also exist to enhance the value of SMS as a revenue stream for the mushroom industry and as an input to the sustainable production of grains. Enhanced value for the mushroom industry is likely to be found in higher returns achieved for a value-added SMS product in the marketplace.
The research team will:
Review past research on SMS to establish its value proposition as a value-added product
Map SMS supplies with potential end-users of SMS
Conduct intensive consultation and demonstration trials with mushroom growers and agriculture users who are end-users of SMS.
MU21004 - Marsh Lawson Mushroom Research Centre of Excellence
Key research provider: The University of Sydney and Applied Horticultural Research
What's it all about?
Following on from the previous levy investment Marsh Lawson Research Centre (MU16004), which began in 2017, this project supports the running and development of the Marsh Lawson Mushroom Research Centre (MLMRC) at the University of Sydney. The MLMRC is a world-class facility dedicated to mushrooms, and the research that takes place there will help the mushroom industry drive innovation, adopt best practices and tackle issues while encouraging new expertise in the industry.
There is a steering committee for the centre and its work, which has aligned the operation of the MLMRC to the Mushroom Fund’s Strategic Investment Plan and will help progress research needs and ideas that will be fulfilled through the centre.
The main objectives of the project remain strongly aligned with those of the previous project:
Maintenance and management of the current Marsh Lawson Mushroom Research Unit at the Darlington Campus, University of Sydney, to promote and carry out active research on all aspects of the growing and cropping of mushrooms.
Provision of research leadership to the mushroom industry, consulting with the industry to prioritise industry research needs through the MLMRC Steering Committee and providing targeted advice on mushroom-related research to the Mushroom Strategic Investment Advisory Panel (SIAP).
Supporting the transition to a new mushroom research facility at a site to be identified when this becomes available.
MU21008 - Mushroom industry conference
Key research provider: Australian Mushroom Growers' Association
What's it all about?
This investment delivers a national mushroom industry conference which will take place over three days from 26-28 October 2022. The conference will improve the communication of information to mushroom growers regarding mushroom production, sustainability, health benefits, consumer marketing and more, with the ultimate outcome of contributing to building a stronger, more resilient Australian mushroom industry
For more information on the conference, visit the Australian Mushroom Growers’ Association website here.
MT21202 - Consumer usage and attitude tracking 2022/23
Key research provider: Fifty-Five Five
What's it all about?
This investment provides a category tracking service to allow various horticultural categories to better understand consumer usage and attitudes and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
The insights gained from this program will seek to answer questions such as:
How do consumer trends and movements in behaviours, usage and attitudes to fresh produce change over time?
How do these trends and evolving expectations of consumers inform future demand opportunities for both the whole-of-horticulture, as well as individual industries?
What perception metrics drive usage and purchase?
What are the barriers to brand/category salience and purchase and how do we overcome these to drive future growth?
The program will also examine the effectiveness of Hort Innovation marketing campaigns to determine how salient they are in market, what their impact is on consumer usage, attitudes and future purchase intent, and how effective they are at driving messaging comprehension and enjoyment.
Please note this is a cross fund project, many different industries pay into this project.
MushroomLink Bulletin August 2022
In this edition:
Highlights of Ireland’s mushroom research
Collaborative mushroom marketing
The microbiotic interactions that support mushroom growth
Catch up on our webinar with Dr Anita Stegoska-Needham
Prof Kertesz interviewed by 2GB’s rural reporter
Andrea Ucello harvesting mushrooms on Ireland
A COMPLEX WEB OF LIFE: BACTERIAL-FUNGAL INTERACTIONS
honours student Shivagami Shamugam
In his book Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake imagines the soil as a “horizonless external gut – digestion and salvage everywhere, with flocks of bacteria surfing waves of electrical charge... like the Wild West with all those bandits, brigands, loners, crap shooters… and the seething intimate contact on all sides by fungal hyphae.”
Getting up close and personal to the community of biota within compost reveals a hustle and bustle that could rival Tokyo central station at peak hour. Mushroom compost thrums with life and activity.
The fermented and pasteurised substrates that support mushrooms are home to countless microorganisms, interacting with each other in a series of physiological and biochemical reactions to create ideal growing conditions for the Agaricus mycelia.
Understanding these bacterial interactions in mushroom compost will likely underpin future developments in the industry as it searches for more sustainable sources of substrates.
University of Sydney honours student Shivagami Shamugam has been investigating the status of current research, and opportunities to exploit bacterial interactions, as part of a levy-supported research project with Dr Michael Kertesz. Her review has been accepted (with minor changes) for publication in the Journal of Applied Microbiology – a significant achievement for an honours student. The following attempts to summarise this review.
Australian Mushrooms Marketing Rebooted
The marketing team at Hort Innovation has developed a new approach to the Marketing Planning Process through close collaboration with industry.
This fresh approach for the FY23, presented in September 2021 by Hort Innovation General Managers of Marketing Jane Smith and Kylie Hudson, laid out a commitment to foster better working relationships with growers and peak industry bodies.
Read all about these initiatives in the first issue of the MushroomLink magazine
MUSHROOMS IN IRELAND, AND THE WORK OF TEAGASC
When people think of horticulture in Ireland, they probably think potatoes. However, the largest horticulture sector in Ireland is actually mushrooms. With 40 farms employing more than 3,500 people and a farm gate value over €120 million, mushrooms are a major industry on the Emerald Isle, a country with a population of only 5 million.
Click here to read the full article from the MushroomLink magazine.
Case Study: Norfolk Island Mushrooms
When people talk about Australia’s most easterly point, they are usually talking about Cape Byron. But, an outpost 1,400 km further east – Norfolk Island - is producing its own mushrooms.
Click here to read about Norfolk Island mushroom grower Darren Nicolai’s operation.
Darren Nicolai turning compost by hand
Pest and Disease Management and Research Services
Over the last five years, Warwick Gill from the University of Tasmania and Judy Allan have led the levy funded
project MU 16003 Pest and disease management and research services, creating an exhaustive and detailed body of knowledge for the Australian mushroom industry.
Over the last five years, Warwick Gill from the University of Tasmania and Judy Allan have led the levy funded project MU 16003 Pest and disease management and research services, creating an exhaustive and detailed body of knowledge for the Australian mushroom industry.
MushroomLink Magazine Issue 01
The first issue of the new MushroomLink magazine is now available. Please contact admin@ahr.com.au to organise a hard copy version of the magazine or be put on the mailing list.
Click here to access a digital copy
Articles:
Mushrooms in Ireland, and the work of Teagasc
A complex web of life: Bacterial fungal interactions
Australian mushrooms marketing rebooted
PCR: A new diagnostics tool gives growers the upper hand in controlling disease
Its a wrap on MU16003 pest and disease management and research services
A new diagnostic tool gives growers the upper hand in controlling disease
A mushroom industry-funded project has delivered a commercially available early disease detection service which has revolutionised the way growers manage disease.
A mushroom industry-funded project has delivered a commercially available early disease detection service which has revolutionised the way growers manage disease.
Click here to find out more in the full article from MushroomLink
AHR employee Samali Perera runs mushroom samples through the PCR machine
Australian Mushrooms marketing rebooted
The marketing team at Hort Innovation has developed a new approach to the Marketing Planning Process through close collaboration with industry. This fresh approach for the FY23, presented in September 2021 by Hort Innovation General Managers of Marketing Jane Smith and Kylie Hudson, laid out a commitment to foster better working relationships with growers and peak industry bodies.
The marketing team at Hort Innovation has developed a new approach to the Marketing Planning Process through close collaboration with industry. This fresh approach for the FY23, presented in September 2021 by Hort Innovation General Managers of Marketing Jane Smith and Kylie Hudson, laid out a commitment to foster better working relationships with growers and peak industry bodies.
A complex web of life: bacterial-fungal interactions
In his book Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake imagines the soil as a “horizonless external gut – digestion and salvage everywhere, with flocks of bacteria surfing waves of electrical charge... like the Wild West with all those bandits, brigands, loners, crap shooters… and the seething intimate contact on all sides by fungal hyphae.”
In his book Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake imagines the soil as a “horizonless external gut – digestion and salvage everywhere, with flocks of bacteria surfing waves of electrical charge... like the Wild West with all those bandits, brigands, loners, crap shooters… and the seething intimate contact on all sides by fungal hyphae.”
University of Sydney honours student Shivagami Shamugam has been investigating the status of current research, and opportunities to exploit bacterial interactions, as part of a levy-supported research project with Dr Michael Kertesz. Her review has been accepted (with minor changes) for publication in the Journal of Applied Microbiology – a significant achievement for an honours student. The following attempts to summarise this review
University of Sydney honours student Shivagami Shamugam
PROJECT PROOF BY FIFTYFIVE5, Consumer research funded through the Mushroom Industry Marketing levy
In realigning their approach to mushroom marketing, Hort Innovation has committed to strong collaboration with the Mushroom Industry Strategic Investment Advisory Panel (SIAP). This will ensure that any decisions regarding mushroom messaging are data-driven, rather than being based on opinion or hearsay. The objective is to drive demand for mushrooms through increasing consumer knowledge, attitudes and purchase intent.
In realigning their approach to mushroom marketing, Hort Innovation has committed to strong collaboration with the Mushroom Industry Strategic Investment Advisory Panel (SIAP). This will ensure that any decisions regarding mushroom messaging are data-driven, rather than being based on opinion or hearsay. The objective is to drive demand for mushrooms through increasing consumer knowledge, attitudes and purchase intent.
Mushrooms in Ireland, and the work of Teagasc
When people think of horticulture in Ireland, they probably think potatoes. However, the largest horticulture sector in Ireland is actually mushrooms. With 40 farms employing more than 3,500 people and a farm gate value over €120 million, mushrooms are a major industry on the Emerald Isle, a country with a population of only 5 million.
When people think of horticulture in Ireland, they probably think potatoes. However, the largest horticulture sector in Ireland is actually mushrooms. With 40 farms employing more than 3,500 people and a farm gate value over €120 million, mushrooms are a major industry on the Emerald Isle, a country with a population of only 5 million.
Webinar Recording: MU20004 A scoping study to review fungi based global innovations
Click here to get a copy of the compendium
Click here to view the final report
Anita Stefoska-Needham led, in collaboration with AMGA, the project MU20004: "A scoping study to review fungi-based innovations to inform product development opportunities”.
In this webinar, Anita discussed the major output - a mushroom product compendium of over 180 products across 13 categories that can be used to inform the mushroom industry of the range and types of commercially available products globally, as well as to highlight the key food categories where mushroom innovation is most active, and by which major companies.
Anita shared some insights to inspire all Australian mushroom growers to consider which opportunities might be feasible for their businesses in the food innovation space.
About the presenter: Dr Anita Stefoska-Needham is a PhD-qualified, Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD), lecturer/researcher and inventor, with a particular interest in food packaging innovations and holds three granted patents. In addition to substantive experience in hospital-based clinical dietetics, Anita has experience in industry-led research and development, consulting, and teaching over a 25+ year span. Anita is considered a senior member of the dietetics profession, reflected in her appointment to the Council of the Nutrition Society of Australia, as well as to the Hearing and Assessment Panel of the 8000-member peak body, Dietitians Australia.
Anita is currently the Academic Program Director of the Bachelor of Nutrition Science degree at the University of Wollongong, teaching nutrition science and food innovation, and leading food and nutrition research.
MushroomLink Bulletin July 2022
In this edition:
New Magazine coming soon!
Food safety testing - get your samples in!
Marketing update
Latest in R&D
Watch and Listen
News and Events
MU20006 - Podcast episode 3
Keeping control of a potentially industry-damaging story in a complex media landscape can be challenging, but not impossible, if everyone works together to prevent an issue becoming a crisis.
Analysing the ‘needle in strawberries’ crisis concludes the series, with special guest Rachel Mackenzie (now executive director of Berries Australia, formerly of Growcom) sharing her valuable insights into what the mushroom industry can learn from this experience.
Podcast funded through the levy project MU20006, Mushroom industry crisis and reputation risk management.
MU20006 - Podcast episode 2
Keeping control of a potentially industry-damaging story in a complex media landscape can be challenging, but not impossible, if everyone works together to prevent an issue becoming a crisis.
In episode 2 of the series, Patrick and Clare cite examples of types of issues specific to the mushroom industry, including product relates risks (that can impact food safety) and people related risks (e.g., seasonal work force related issues, industry ‘cowboys’ or disgruntled employees).
Podcast funded through the levy project MU20006, Mushroom industry crisis and reputation risk management.