This seems like a much more promising avenue than lab-grown meat. Fungi are already rich in protein, are a bit closer on the tree of life to animals than plants are, are sedentary by default, and are absolute chemical powerhouses.<p>If we can engineer a fungus to produce just the right amino profile, or whatever nutrition you're looking for, then you have a self perpetuating stock that should be much lower tech and simpler to manage than trying to grow muscle tissue in a "petri dish".<p>Heck, we could just be eating more mushrooms, they already are a pretty good source of protein.
> After these changes, the once-white fungi grew red. With minimal preparation -- removing excess water and grinding -- the harvested fungi could be shaped into a patty, then fried into a tempting-looking burger.<p>To me this is were we get lost.<p>There must an uncanny valley for meat, where it's just not great when you're trying to fake it perfectly.<p>Mushroom burgers already exist and they're delicious. I also like the meat burgers, they absolutely don't taste the same, but each side is still great.<p>If we can get more variety on the mushroom side with different textures, tastes, juiciness etc. it would be incredible, and it doesn't need to be red and meat like.
I've always wondered if we could potentially use genetic engineering to open up new possibilities for food. Would it be possible to make some inedible foods edible this way? For instance, what if you could make non-poisonous death cap mushrooms or nightshade berries?
In this 2019 documentary [1], "Fantastic Fungi", it is briefly mentioned that fungi played a paramount role in the evolution of our brain (intelligence)<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.netflix.com/fi-en/title/81183477" rel="nofollow">https://www.netflix.com/fi-en/title/81183477</a>
I am curious of there is potential for a structural application, like getting the fungi to produce chitin or cellulose. I could imagine providing a light lattice for a structure, spraying it with spores and a nutrient slurry, and then letting it grow and harden into a durable structure.
Same article, but with pictures and friendlier layout: <a href="https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2024/03/14/its-hearty-its-meaty-its-mold/" rel="nofollow">https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2024/03/14/its-hearty-its-meaty-i...</a>
<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn</a><p>The UK has been eating fungus based meat replacements for decades.
There is a start-up in Australia (<a href="https://fablefood.co/" rel="nofollow">https://fablefood.co/</a>) that makes amazing mushroom like "pulled beef". It's pretty good when you cook it as they recommend, but I also burnt it on a bbq one day and it was AMAZING!!!<p>I've recently been thinking about how we will build a micro-nutrient rich diet through tightly controlling how our foods are manufactured. I'm sure this is being worked on somewhere, but I haven't seen much. Seems like most of the lab-grown stuff is more focused on the lack of land use than the ability to custom generate the food that best suits an individuals diet.<p>Anyone know who's working on this?
One of the first FDA drugs made from fungi was lovastatin, a statin sourced from Aspergillus terreus, a close relative to the Aspergillus in the subject article.