Recent research published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research suggests that a fifth of the meat people eat could be replaced by fungi-based meat alternatives which would lead to a halving of deforestation globally by 2050.
Meat from “ruminants” such as cattle contributes to climate change because carbon-storing forests are cut down for grazing land or crops that make up animal feed. Methane emissions are a problem too. As well as dropping meat in favour of vegetables, alternatives include protein from microbes such as fungi produced in a fermentation process using sugar.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
Fungi to help save the planet has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
