{"id":13711,"date":"2024-12-16T23:35:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T23:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=13711"},"modified":"2024-12-16T23:35:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T23:35:49","slug":"how-christmas-trees-could-become-a-source-of-low-carbon-protein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=13711","title":{"rendered":"How Christmas Trees Could Become a Source of Low-Carbon Protein"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Planting forests while growing protein-rich food seems like a win-win, so are there any potential drawbacks? Lynne Boddy, professor of fungal ecology at Cardiff University, believes that mycoforestry \u201cabsolutely\u201d has the potential to produce significant food crops while sequestering carbon. However, she advocates for \u201chuge care\u201d in doing so. \u201cTo my mind, whenever we inoculate anything, it has to have local provenance,\u201d she says of the fungi. \u201cThere\u2019s the worry of an invasive genotype if it comes from elsewhere. Even if it comes from Britain, and you\u2019re just planting the same thing in an area there\u2019s a worry of diluting the gene pool. You\u2019re also likely to decrease local species diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas says these are valid questions, but points out that this project is focused on using fungal species native to the planting area, and with less aggressive strains than those already currently inoculated by many nurseries to encourage tree growth\u2014although he acknowledges there could be potential for another company to look to use some form of genetic modification in the future, which would require regulatory approval.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the question of what happens to the trees. If they are left standing or produce timber that\u2019s used as a building material, then that draws down carbon from the atmosphere for the long haul. But if the wood ends up decomposing or being burned\u2014as is often the case with Christmas trees\u2014then much of the carbon drawn down could end up back in the atmosphere. Even so, this cycle would still produce protein with a low net carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

This process could make future Christmas trees more sustainable, Jump believes. The conventional way of growing Christmas trees is \u201cquite an inefficient system, if you look at it from the carbon perspective,\u201d he says. \u201cYou might be soaking up the carbon into the tree, but then you\u2019re trashing the trees after Christmas. Getting the fungi associated with the Christmas trees is actually quite a nice way to reduce the carbon impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

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