Figure 1. A Vertical Farm Concept (iied.org/flickr.com)

I recently read The Vertical Farm, Feeding the world in the 21st Century, by Dickson Despommier (2010, Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY) and I also got a chance to chat with him on the phone to get some information for an article I wrote for a magazine. Dr. Despommier is a microbiologist and a driving force behind the vertical farming (VF) movement. Vertical farms are urban structures designed for food production. I highly recommend the book to get the full scoop or you can also learn more at The Vertical Farm website. Figure 1 is probably enough to give you some idea of what one might look like. Things are just getting started in the VF world right now but several projects are under way around the globe.

However, I got to thinking, how could mushroom growing fit into the VF scheme of things? The carbon dioxide/oxygen linkage between plants and fungi seems like it is ready-made to play a role in any vertical farm intent on maximizing efficiency. There could be some favorable humidity conditions available in a VF building using hydroponics that could be taken advantage of as well. I visualize something like this:

• Mushroom spawn can be produced in a controlled environment within the VF building.
• The CO₂ laden air from the spawn room can be slowly vented into the plant growing areas to enhance photosynthesis.
• If Agaricus is the species in cultivation, it could be grown in the inner parts of the structure since there would be no need for light.
• Light-requiring species could be grown in bags and moved about on rolling carts into areas of light when it was time to induce fruiting.
• When it was time to induce a flush of mushrooms the more oxygen rich moist air from the plant environment could be circulated into the grow room, or as mentioned, the spawn bags could be moved into or near to the plant section.
• Mycelium is already being used for CO2 supplementation by some growers (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Exhale Bag for Carbon Dioxide Production (Philip McIntosh)

These ideas are very general I realize, but they do layout a framework to be pursued. After I had thought about this, I ran across a brief notice during my article research about a VF project in Manchester UK that plans to include mushroom growing. Details on that project are sketchy so I am not sure to what extend the mushroom growing will be integrated into the overall design.

I figured others have probably though of this idea too, so a quick web search reveals a couple of things, but they are mostly conceptual and no one to my knowledge is actually putting any sizable mycocultural modules into a VF operation at this time.

One interesting concept is SPORE v2 described at ARKFAB (Figure 3). It is a design for a specialized growing facility but I think it is a stretch to call it a vertical mushroom farm. It’s more of a really cool design for a regular mushroom farm and it’s not very vertical. Since it is designed to be a stand alone unit, it is not really along the lines of how I envision mushroom farming being integrated in to a VF structure. But, could the SPORE v2 be installed somewhere within a larger VF building? It sure looks like it could. Tragically, the founder of ARKFAB recently died in a motorcycle accident and email messages are bouncing, so for now I can get no further information on SPORE v2.

Figure 3. The ARKFAB SPORE v2 design (ARKFAB)

It looks like Plant Chicago has the right idea. Plant Chicago is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting sustainable food production, entrepreneurship, and building reuse through education, research and development. According to the diagram (Figure 4) they appear to be putting some thought in to exactly how mushroom farming would fit into an overall plan to include hydroponics as well as aquaponics. It’s a work in-progress, and according to Melanie Hoekstra, Operations Manager at The Plant, the substrate has been inoculated but no mushrooms have appeared yet..

There are plenty of references to growing mushrooms “vertically” in bags, or stacked vertically on shelves, or vertically on a wall, etc. But, there seems to be very little information about anyone who is really putting serious thought and effort into true vertical mushroom farming with the same scope and breadth of vision as Dr. Despommier lays out in his book. So, the question remains—who will build the first truly integrated mushroom growing operation in a vertical farm?

Figure 4. Plant Chicago Design Includes a Mushroom Facility (Plant Chicago)

This according to an AFP article (and I don’t know exactly what AFP is, although the article it is hosted by Google), Thai poachers turn funghi farmers to save forests by Claire Truscott.

Thailand’s lush jungles are under daily attack by illegal loggers and poachers, but conservationists in the country’s northeast are turning to an unlikely remedy — the common mushroom. A project that turns former wildlife criminals into funghi farmers is proving a surprising success, giving villagers a decent wage while helping to slow the destruction of forests in the Khao Yai National Park, a World Heritage Site. Under the scheme, set up by Thailand’s Freeland foundation, Nuan now has her own business as a mushroom farmer and no longer relies on precious rosewood, prized for its perfumed sap, as her only means of regular income.

Judging from the pictures, it looks like a weird and inefficient method of growing oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus sp.). They are grown in bags stacked on their sides and in the pictures provided, there is a single long-stemmed mushroom growing out of a small opening in the end of each bag.

The article states that the mushroom growers cannot meet the local demand and the project organizers want to expand the project. From the looks of it, if they would grow them differently they would likely have a much better chance of meeting the demand.