Another year has been composted and it was a year of further change and consolidation within the Irish mushroom industry.

Migrant worker issues came heavily to the fore with wages for work done being questioned and exploitation being challenged.

What was once a 1000+ satellite system industry has condensed down to a sub 150 grower industry producing the same tonnage - the Dutch model has prevailed. The one constant for the industry has been change - isn't it ever thus?

January began with an inquiry into the sacking of migrant workers during the month on the Kilnaleck farm in Co.Cavan - this would hit the headlines again in November with news of massive compensatory payouts. Bill Abom of the migrant Rights Centre Ireland said that it received a disproportionate number of complaints about the mushroom sector. Surely the New Year could only get better?

Greyfriars in England was noted as bucking the trend in the mushroom sector with increasing financial strength and above average sales growth reported. Resident scholar Francisco Arqueros examined the costs of working in the mushroom industry, from the perspective of pickers, migrant workers, growers, producers and the supermarket sector. The question "is there a way to get both the growers and pickers their fix?" has probably yet to be answered.

There were further reports of growers exiting the industry in the North, while also in the North the Greendale and Castle Mushrooms marketing boys had come up with a bumper sticker - "Live Long, Eat Mushrooms". Certainly a healthy injunction from the producers on the ground. One of the men behind the stickers, John Kernan, missed a chance to slap a sticker on the Empire State Building when he was over in New York City during the month.

The "Additives Question" got a mention - how to get the additives mix to the compost right, was proving a major headache for some.

And what the symbolic meaning of mushrooms is in dreams was also addressed - apparently they symbolise a change or development for the better; everyone hoped the year would also turn out somewhat for the better.

February brought glad tidings for some local companies in the North with EU funding heading their way. K.Hughes managed to benefit to the tune of GBP 126,000 out of a total grant aid of GBP 3.46 million, in the Agricultural processing and marketing scheme.

The company, established in 1965 has proven to be one of the most successful mushroom marketing companies on the island of Ireland. Another Northern firm to benefit from grant aid were Unimush, located near Armagh City. The company won funds to develop and expand. GBP 340,000 was allocated to help build their new mushroom processing and packing facility and to step up export marketing. In the South, word was that CMP had acquired a new pack house and appeared to be bucking the trends in the sector also by winning some big orders.

Stalker heard rumours of Phase 3 compost being brought in form Holland and the bird flu scare was causing some trepidation. In Hong Kong, authorities were confiscating poultry and offering chicken farmers lessons in mushroom growing such was the fear engendered by the H5N1 strain of flu virus. (Subsequently it has transpired that chicken vaccination may have helped a previously unknown and dangerous sub strain of H5N1 bird flu to emerge in China. The virus which appeared last year is now the dominant strain and is rampant and spreading through southeast Asia. It's a case of watch this space, another scare could be imminent.)

A new oyster mushroom strain was reported to have been cultured in Goa. There was a review of "The Mushroom Covenant" and an interview with the author Laima Muktupavela. The picture painted of work on an Irish mushroom farm was certainly one of tough grind and very little care for workers and their rights or comforts. For Laima the life of writing was a welcome by-product of her time in Ireland.

March motored in with a steely robotic flavour and the sense that mushroom beauty products had finally arrived. The latest in mushroom picking robotics was unveiled during the month at the University of Warwick. The blurb was that the development of robots and inflatable conveyor belts were set to slash farm labour costs and make the farmers life much easier.

The pictured robotic picking arm which uses a coupled camera to spot and select only mushrooms of the exact size required was certainly a glimpse of things to come.


Robotic mushroom picking arm in action.

Stalker wondered were the human pickers' days numbered? It will be a while yet before that happens. The fact that robots can pick 24/7 though may be the clincher.

Mind you that would only happen in a world where breakdowns do not occur, and any mushroom grower or compost yard manager can tell you that machinery breakdowns are not rare and always happen at the wrong time.

Some happy migrant workers in Northern Ireland were interviewed on  BBC Radio 4 for The Food Programme. Lappin Mushrooms outside Armagh City had a happy bunch of workers, a testament to the fact that good management treats the workers well! On the cosmetics front, readers were no doubt dumbfounded and amazed at the prices charged for a little bottle of mega-mushroom face serum. Stalker tested some from the high street outlets, for research purposes only.

The goo/stuff is quite soothing and smells ok, but at over GBP40 for a 100mls it would need to guarantee attraction to the opposite/ desired sex and take ten years off your appearance if that's what you're after. Too pricey by far, even if it is Oprah endorsed.

While back in the real world, Tommy Dillon's trolleys and picking lorry were the objets de jour. Best title of the year went to "Blowback Mounting", a little note about the ever increasing dominance and stranglehold of the Tesco supermarket chain ... and it only gets worse.

March also carried the now obligatory April Fool article. The article, very serious in tone reported on the effect of the Coprinus Ademptio urina (hybrid mushroom strain) causing mammary gland enlargement and becoming a secret potion in the LA transgendered community.

Total hokum, of course.

Quote of the month came from John Smith of Greyfriars in an article from FreshInfo about the sector squaring up to challenges, especially from Poland. He said:
"If you can market mushrooms you can market anything." Never a truer word was spoken.

April arrived in a glowing fashion.
The story about Light Emitting Mushrooms may have fooled some that it was an April Fool story, but it was far from it. The glowing mushrooms of Kobe have become a  tourist draw, helping the Japanese city to attract record numbers of tourists - 23.2 million apparently. Hard to believe those figures all the same. Mushrooms as a source for Vitamin D was the story emanating from some research in Washington.

The main articles in the April edition were on Labour Standards and  on the Commercial Mushroom Producers "Securing the future". CMP's new central office and packhouse was pictured, as was the company's new packaging.

  Executive chairman of CMP Jim Gollogley set out his vision for the future of CMP and berated the dismal failure of marketing agents to secure proper prices for growers in the previous year.

The article on labour standards focused mainly on the work of one grower in the South-East, Leslie Codd. The article raised some interesting issues and produced some stark figures on the ability of a grower to be competitive and pay a fair wage.

The article's conclusion made good sense: "fair labour standards should be included in the checking list of food quality standard schemes such as EUREP-GAP, CMI, Tesco's Nature Choice, and Mark and Spencer's From Farm to Fork. In this way, labour standards would be checked every year and growers would get a cert stating that they comply with them. And doubts about generalised abuse of labour in mushroom farms in Ireland would be dissipated."

There was word of special meetings in the coming month on nematodes and sciarid control in Thurles and Monaghan, organised by Conway Services of Loughgall in Armagh. The topics covered included:  life cycle of the sciarid fly; best application times for maximum kill rates; application methods.

A massive rally in Belfast protesting about the business rates that threaten to seriously adversely affect companies operating in the Northern sector, was reported on. The cruellest month indeed.

May or may not as the case maybe - the world's first healthy coffee was touted in the May edition. The coffee made with the widely known Reishi mushroom, aka Ganoderma Lucidum mushroom, was heralded by one American outlet as the answer to stress and the perfect cuppa for a healthy body.

The science article in May came from Helen Grogan at Teagasc; as the adverts go " here's the science".

Helen was  investigating the baffling problem of mushrooms going brown when they oughtn't to. Mushroom Virus X  got a mention and Helen informed us that:
"Teagasc has now undertaken a three year research project based at Kinsealy Research Centre, Dublin, to determine the optimum conditions necessary for expression of the symptom.  By knowing why and when the symptom occurs, we will be able to address the predisposing factors and work towards eliminating any weaknesses in the production system or growing environment that facilitate the virus's spread and expression."

Elsewhere Australia and China were squaring up for a trade war as the Chinese were accused of dumping mushrooms on the Aussie market.

  The Play "The Mushroom Pickers" was gaining glowing reviews in the UK - the play based in a County Monaghan setting, exploring the tensions of life in the locality and on farm.

  Paul Stamets, the man who believes that u8shrooms can save the world, and he may be right, featured in an article examining the role of fungi in bio-remediation and similarities between the world wide web and mycelial networks.

The mushroom sector came under scrutiny by the Labour Inspectorate in the South as the Minister of State for labour affairs Tony Killeen told the Dail(The Irish Parliamnet) that he was aware there was particular concern about alleged employment  malpractices in the mushroom sector.

The month was set to end on a higher note with the expectancy and hope delivered by the premier Dutch mushroom event taking place.

   As June bridled, the big news for the month was the Mushroom Days/ Champignondagen event that had taken place in Holland at the end of May.

The attendance at the event was a little down on previous years, which was not unexpected given the straitened times the sector has been experiencing in Europe. However quite a number of Irish growers did pitch up for the event. At the event there was a lot of interest in the equipment on view. There were interesting improvements on picking equipment, according to some of the experts who attended. As well as newly designed lorries and a machine for mechanical harvesting export quality. Stalker heard that the Dutch view was that it was a good show, and that many of the Irish celebrated a little too much on the first night. But they were all there the next morning again - the Dutch think us Irish practise drinking a lot - surely not.

The organiser's indicated that professional pictures from the event would be appearing on the official website at www.mushroomdays.com and also pictures from the event can be viewed at www.mushroombusiness.com

In local news, JF MCKenna scooped a prestigious environmental award. The company's recycling techniques and waste minimisation procedures helped win the Stem Project Award for "Excellence in Environmental Management".

The JFM team - proud of their award

The Daily telegraph's Rose Prince, a.k.a the Savvy Shopper, gave the humble mushroom the once-over; a good bit of PR puff for the produce in one of the most widely read papers in the UK.

The science in June was an older article that still holds much relevance to the growing practices of today. John Fletcher's article on "Practical Control measures for pests and diseases on your farm" was one for the file marked important.

Roy Erwin of Erwin Peat was pictured with Gordon Orr receiving a Mushroom Casing Code of Practice Certificate. All casing yards, south and north, are audited by Bord Bia / MIANI to the food safety quality assurance code of practice.

Ugly fresh produce was mentioned: "What gets harvested  is a riot of variety, the kind of healthy heterogeneity that Darwin first identified as being nature's clever way of ensuring that a good range of genes get passed from one generation to the next. But it doesn't look pretty. The cost of that "variety" is a harvest marked by lumps and bumps, twists and turns, patches of green mould and the occasional black spot of rottenness. However, with news that Waitrose  is to sell ugly fruit and veg some might think that misshapen mushrooms might make it unto shelves. That is highly unlikely - the grading of mushrooms is sure to continue ad infinitum, much to the pickers despair."

Sean McArdle got some surprise treatment for a landmark birthday and daughter Michelle tied the knot with dashing Amycel rep Kieran Smyth.  A happy month indeed!

July did duly appear and with it the holidays tended to bring the doldrums to news items and noteworthy tidbits.

Mel O'Rourke, belatedly, got his mug shot into the notes, with an appointment to An Bord Bia. Word of the Second World Mushroom Cooking Competition was reported - held in September in Beijing, Stalker never did find out who won the competition.

There was more evidence that growers were simply baling out of the industry as times got tougher and the writing did seem to be well and truly on the wall for the smaller operator. The top 1000 Irish companies were examined for mushroom sector content and lo and behold the usual suspects appeared - Monaghan at position 277, Walsh Mushrooms at position 462 and Donegal Creameries at position  316.

Chronos Richardson were mentioned in relation to their mechanical and engineering skills that were available for various projects. A veteran mushroom sector engineering outfit Gildernew Engineering were noted for their win at the STEP Project environmental awards.

There was an article on eating mushrooms to prevent cancer - as ever with any of these medicinal claiming articles caution is always advised. The line from Hippocrates though "Be food your medicine" probably does have a lot of truth to it.

The question of food miles was climbing the political agenda, voiced by rising New Labour starlet David Milliband in his role as Environment Minister.

"The food industry has the potential to significantly affect our fragile environment, but it is also in the unique position of being able to make a major positive contribution to reducing our environmental footprint."

He told supermarket chiefs he wanted them to meet targets for reducing carbon emissions and asked how they could increase their uptake of locally produced, seasonal food. A future PM in the making perhaps? Or just another plonker politician?

There was a warning about dust clouds transporting bacteria from Africa all around the world, and closer to home  toxic dust from A mine in Tipperary blowing onto farms - the injunction to keep mushroom tunnel doors well sealed, and closed, was well made.

In the UK mushroom "lovers" were honoured and Mushroom Bureau chairman  Andrew Middlebrook was  pronouncing on the importance of promoting the produce: "If we don't support the product we are passionate about, then it is very hard to tell other people that they should do so," said Middlebrook. "People don't have a lot of money spare, but the Australians showed us the importance of passion and instilled some confidence. We are back, as are Walsh and Heveco, and we have to be."

August arrived, and it can sometimes be regarded as the silly season, but " A Salutary Tale" from John Fletcher on Watering and the spread of mushroom diseases, put paid to any silly notions.

Ex-Tanaiste Mary Harney was revealed to have been a mushroom picker in her youth - some did wonder how long she stuck at that?

There was an article on the truffle bonanza that was affecting the UK, in particular the south of England. The hunt for the summer truffle, the tuber aestivium, was on, although not commanding the exorbitant prices obtained for the famous Perigord black variety, the English one was much sought after.

Items, on managing farm plastic and on a new DVD to help farmers avoid injury and burn-out, helped sustain the non-silly season mood. But an entertaining article by a young American reporter on the origins of her Ukrainian name, Chuby, managed to lighten the tone a bit.

Stirling Mycotechnology got a mention, but the company was to run into some difficulties before the year was out. And it was reported that Tunnel Tech had bought over one of its customers because it liked it so much!

Demand for Irish mushrooms was reportedly quite buoyant with several reasons given; the super-industrious Dutch take two weeks holiday in August - as they rightfully should, thus potentially causing a supply dip apparently. As for the Polish influence - Poland had been experiencing something of a major heat wave which had subsequently impacted on the mushroom growing production according to informed sources.

McShane Packaging were noted for the new buildings appearing in their yard - expanding the empire 'twas reckoned.

There was a radio prize of mushrooms for a year on the Steve Wright Show on BBC Radio 2. The Mushroom Bureau reported that summer sale were up by 8.3 per cent over the last four years - an encouraging sign for sure.

September slidled into view with the news that Heveco was in administrator's hands - this was without doubt a major blow to the confidence of the European mushroom industry as a whole.

Heveco was a massive company. It was reported later in the year that the company was still viable and operating under new management and with some large scale lay-offs. The reverberations of the whole Heveco shock are no doubt still being felt.

The main article that month was an examination of the US mushroom industry by Francisco Arqueros.  The lessons of the industry development and consolidation in the US are there to be seen, with all the attendant problems with workers and migrant worker exploitation too.

The death of a mushroom plant worker, Erik Ramos-Zapeda in Watsonville in the USA foreshadowed a death closer to home in the subsequent month.

The US  mushroom fraternity also  lamented the passing of an esteemed scientist working the field for many years - Paul Wuest PSU Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology: "He truly brought Pennsylvania mushroom farmers, especially those here in Chester and Berks counties, up into the real world of science as far as mushroom growing is concerned." "He helped us grow the optimum mushroom. Consumers want to buy the best and we try to produce the best and he helped us do that,"

There was a piece on Mark Komatsu a grower in Bradford on Avon. His organic crimini mushrooms had been highlighted in a massive advertising campaign by UK supermarket Waitrose.

A mushroom recall in the US caused a bit of a scare. Moneterey Mushrooms  issued the recall when it became clear that a batch of produce had tested positive for listeria monocytogenes. The bacteria was tracked to a slicing machine at a distribution plant.. A crew dismantled the slicer, and found the organism between two pieces of metal, in a place difficult to sanitize properly.

Shah Kazemi, chief executive officer and founder of Monterey Mushrooms, said  the company has the most advanced food safety program in the mushroom industry, and had redesigned the slicer where the listeria was found. Now that is doing things right! No messing about, just redesign the machine.

With the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness well and truly under way, October brought articles on supermarket trolley wars and how to grow specialty exotic mushrooms.

Headline of the month was "How do you solve a problem like Korea?"

One of the first items to be embargoed when Korea test-detonated an underground nuclear device, was  the matsutake mushrooms that North Korea exported to sate the Japanese appetite for the much sought after fungus.

There was word of a new casing material from Warwick HRI made from coal tailings. Figures for mushroom consumption in Iran were reported - it does seem that countries that feature in George W Bush's Axis of Evil do tend to crop up in the mushroom news reports from around the world. Strange, that.. The Iranians are importing expertise on mushroom methods from Holland, and it is hoped that recent UN sanctions will not interfere with the country's budding mushroom industry.

And busy bee Margaret Ann O'Reilly got a mention in the October issue. Happy 2007 to herself, hubbie and kids.

November dawned with an appeal to protect mushroom pickers. The Seanad in Dublin heard an appeal by Brendan Ryan (Labour) to help save mushroom pickers from the tyranny of exploitative practices. He appealed directly to the Irish public to stop buying mushrooms in supermarkets if there was no guarantee that workers were being treated fairly. The airwaves and the press had been full of really bad publicity for the mushroom sector in October and November. A probe into pesticide misuse was also announced, flowing from a radio item on RTE that was seen as an expose of the worst that was happening in the industry. A new body seemed to have been formed in the light of  media investigations into the ongoing negative perceptions about the mushroom sector in Ireland.

The new entity, the Mushroom Employers Committee was born into somewhat choppy waters. The Committee's aims were to address issues at industry level and reportedly, it had already met with SIPTU and the MRCI.

The culmination of events that had taken place in January was also played out when an Employment Appeals Tribunal awarded substantial compensation to workers who had been dismissed from the mushroom farm at Kilnaleck in Co. Cavan.
More than Euro350,000 was awarded - a whopping indictment of the treatment that the pickers had received.

On a more tragic note, the death of Stephen Paton on his family's mushroom growing unit in North Berwick in Scotland was a stark reminder to all working in the industry that health and safety must be utmost in minds when working around hazardous machinery and farm locations.

A cheerier note was sounded with the news that Tommy Dillon had hooked up with Dutch firm Limbraco, to provide a servicing facility for the company.

It was good to see an indigenous company forming a partnership with a European entity - and indeed the whole venture came about due to mutually friendly exchange visits between Ireland and Holland - long may they continue.
A medicinal mushroom conference in Slovenia in September 2007 was reported on - even if one has only a minor interest in medicinal mushrooms, it would be a great gig to go to. Slope off and enjoy the delights of Ljubljana and beyond.

Chronos Richardson unveiled a new website for service and spares: www.servicechronos.com

Approaching year's end, the December issue's main article focused on the changes that have beset the Irish Mushroom industry over the past few years.

IRCHSS Scholar  Francisco Arqueros examined the recent upheaval with respect to migrant workers, and the warnings emanating from the CMP chief executive.

Change has happened and is continuing to happen within the sector and the new paradigm is already here. It may not be comfortable reading for any smaller operators that are ctually left within the sector, but at least the road ahead seems more certain.

Minister for Horticulture Brendan Smith warned against any mistreatment of workers in the industry at the opening of the new marketing facility, pack house and offices of the Commercial Mushroom producers Co-Operative Society Ltd (CMP).

He said that like many other industries, the mushroom sector was now dependent o migrant labour.
"Over recent times there has been much media attention drawn to the alleged mistreatment of workers in the sector."


The Minister said: "Any such mistreatment which may have happened, only serves to tarnish an industry which has been built on a high standard of excellence and sheer hard work."
"Worker mistreatment should never be condoned in any civilised society and it certainly will not be condoned by the government."

On the science front - Mairead Kilpatrick and Ralph Noble had an article on solving the bad smells from mushroom compost "goody" water. Leave it to the boffins to come up with ways to zap the nasty niffs. Not being technically minded Stalker only wondered if the Liquor referred to in the item was alcoholic or no? Definitely no!

The Mushroom People ended with the item on movie star Martin Sheen uniting with migrant farm workers.

The last word going to Ronnie Wilson as quoted in The Sunday Times:
"There is some exploitation, but I don't believe it is as widespread as purported. We pay our workers the minimum wage."

Hopefully 2007 will bring better conditions for all working within the industry.