Food production in America requires a lot of peat moss for starting seedlings and soil blending. America currently imports over 95% of peat moss from Canada. Among the industries that are heavily affected by a shortage peat moss is the mushroom industry.
Did you know that growing mushrooms requires a lot of high-quality peat moss? It takes literally thousands of tons of peat for mushroom production every year, and the peat gets more expensive each year while the quality of harvested peat often becomes lower. And sometimes, it isn’t even available at all. Shortages of this much-needed commodity will cause real problems across the globe soon, and the demand is rapidly increasing.
SPGX portfolio company CORMO USA has recently seen great results for their peat moss substitute TEFA™. TEFA™ is made from corn stover and has been proven as a highly suitable casing soil medium. It can also be produced with significant reductions in CO2 emissions.
Centro Tecnologico de Investigacion del Champignon (CTICH) in Spain recently completed scientific validation in a commercial production scenario utilizing TEFA™ for casing soil. The results showed that a blend of 50% TEFA™ and 50% blond peat produces Agaricus at the same yield as 100% black peat.
With more than 100 years combined experience in banking, business management, project development and marketing, SPGX strives to bring new ideas in sustainability to life.
