For peat’s sake
Farmers braced for British boycott of Irish mushrooms as National Trust takes them off menus over climate fears
‘It’s not even regulated, it’s wild west stuff’
A MOVE to ban mushrooms fromcafes operated by the BritishNational Trust is ‘likely toadversely affect the financial viabilityof producers’ here, according to the Stateagriculture andfood agency Teagasc.
The National Trust announcedearlier thismonth it would removemushrooms from the menu at itsalmost 300 cafes around the UK.
It came after calls in Britain for
a national boycott of mushrooms-grown inpeat, to protect bogs dugup to provide theorganic matter.
Bogs lock in carbon, helping tofight globalwarming. The WildlifeTrust says that peat extractionfrom bogs for horticulture hascaused 31million tons of carbondioxide to bereleased since 1990and tells consumers to ‘avoidmushrooms grown in peat’.
But with exports to the UKaccounting for around 80% ofmushrooms produced inIreland,the ban has caused concern amongsomegrowers here.
Donal Gernon, who is a mushroom advisorwith the agriculture-and food developmentauthorityTeagasc, said banning mushrooms‘ is likely toadversely affect thefinancialviabilityofproducers’ and that
‘once a grower hasgoneoutofproductiontheyareunlikelyto re-enter productiondue to the highstart-upcosts.’
The mushroom sectoruses what Teagasccalls‘ a relatively smallamount of peat’.
Mushroom compostitself doesnot contain peat
– it is a mixture of straw , manure ,gypsum and mushrooms pawn –but a 5 cm deep layer of peat mixedwith sugar be et lime is placed ontop to trigger the growth. Mr Gernon toldthe Irish Mail onSunday that a ‘ considerableamount of research ’ is ongoing inIreland and internationally tofind viablesubstitute stop eat , using ‘ a-wide range oforganic andnon- organicmaterials ’.
Mushroom growers say theyhave no choice but to continueusing peat until aviablealternative is available. Padraic O’Leary, chiefexecutiveof Walsh Mushrooms Group inGorey, Co.Wexford, these cond-largest supplier of mushrooms tothe UK,said: ‘Thereis no alternative to peat, which is a critical partof thegrowing process.’ Ecologist andenvironmental scientist Padraic Fogarty saidhe didnot ‘know why you’d pick outmushrooms [to ban] over meatand dairy and all these otherthings. Everything comes with animpact.’
Mr Fogarty added: ‘The Stateneeds to starttaking responsibility for this and to regulate[peatharvesting] properly. Ultimately, thepea thasto stay in theground, but atthe momentit’snot even regulated. It’s wildwest stuff.‘ So I thinkthat’s whereI’d be puttingthe emphasis,rather than on tellingpeople not to eat mushrooms.’