Name: Mushrooms.
Age: Approximately 810m years old.
Appearance: Disappearing.
Really? We’ve driven fungi to the edge of extinction? This is really the end of all life on Earth, isn’t it? Hang on a minute, you didn’t let me finish.
Sorry, go on. Mushrooms are disappearing from National Trust menus.
That’s a lot less scary. Hang on a minute, you still didn’t let me finish.
Sorry, go on. Mushrooms are disappearing from National Trust menus because their cultivation is destroying the planet.
I’m so confused. Exactly how much should I be freaking out? Honestly, probably minimal to moderate freaking out. The National Trust has removed mushrooms from its menus amid calls to boycott mushrooms grown in peat.
And why is this? It’s because peat is extracted from bogs and bogs are an important way to lock up carbon. Extract peat from bogs and you release CO2 into the atmosphere; approximately 31m tonnes of it since 1990 apparently.
Well, this seems as though it’s easily solved. We just need to start eating mushrooms that haven’t been grown in peat. About that. The vast majority of mushrooms currently on sale in the UK were grown in peat.
So anyone who buys commercially grown mushrooms is deliberately contributing to the destruction of the planet? Yes. Well, sort of.
Oh, what is it now? I mean, 31m tonnes of CO2 since 1990 sounds bad. But 1990 was 34 years ago, so that works out at less than a million tonnes a year.
Which is still a lot! It is. But compare this to the meat and dairy industry, which produces 7.1 gigatons of CO2 each year, and you start to build a better picture of which foods are really hurting the environment.
Is this like when people came for my almond milk? Well, that’s different. Almond milk actually produces the lowest greenhouse emissions of any dairy-free milk substitute. But it does require a colossal amount of water to make, so people are still within their rights to tut at you whenever you order it.
So it is bad? Not as bad as chugging a pint of cow’s milk. Meat and dairy, remember? Essentially anything is better than that.
So, the National Trust has presumably removed all meat and dairy from its menus too. Well, some of the National Trust websites still state that you can buy sausage rolls there, so apparently not.
This is an ethical minefield! Am I supposed to eat mushrooms or not? Comparatively, eating a peat-grown mushroom is less bad for the planet than eating a great big juicy steak. But just know that when you do, you will still be leaving our only home in a worse state than you found it. Does that help?
Not at all. Awesome. Great chat.
Do say: “Peat-grown mushrooms are harmful to the environment.”
Don’t say: “I’d better update my private jet’s menu accordingly.”
