Share

The 'hidden' truth about supermarket mushrooms

Our precious peatlands face a barrage of threats; drainage for agriculture, burning for grouse moor management, and peat extraction for everything from filling bags of compost to growing that innocent little punnet of mushrooms that we pick up during our weekly shop.

Caring for our amazing peatlands is a vital step in tackling our dual climate and nature crises, but without knowing it, we may be buying and eating mushrooms that have been grown in extracted peat. Surely this can’t be a good enough reason for devastating our peatland habitats and contributing to the decline of our native wildlife? But what can you do?

Across The Wildlife Trusts, we have launched our Hidden Peat campaign, in which we have asked our supporters to become Peat Inspectors: our eyes and ears in the fight to remove peat from the supply chain. The aim - to be on the lookout for clear and obvious labelling for the use of peat in a product. Does it contain peat? Or is it peat-free? We need to know.

 

Mushrooms, leafy salads, plug plants and house plants all could have peat hidden inside them.

These products may contain hidden peat.

Bagged compost, potted garden plants and house plants are the obvious suspects for containing peat, but some of the food we buy at the supermarkets can also be contributing to the use of peat in the supply chain. The main culprit: mushrooms.

 

Most large scale mushroom production use extracted peat.

Industrial scale mushroom growing contributes to the destruction of our precious peatland ecosystems, due to the devastating extraction methods. Roughly a ninth of the peat that is extracted annually in the UK is used for growing mushrooms, and the amount used could release around 11,000 tonnes of CO2*, which is the equivalent of over 2600 cars being driven for an entire year.

The National Trust have made a strong statement by banning mushrooms that have been grown in extracted peat from their café menus and will now only buy from guaranteed peat-free mushroom suppliers. This is a great step for raising awareness of the issue and will hopefully encourage others to follow their lead. But this still begs the question, how do you find out if a mushroom has been grown in peat?

Roughly a ninth of the peat that is extracted annually in the UK is used for growing mushrooms, and the amount used could release around 11,000 tonnes of CO2*, which is the equivalent of over 2600 cars being driven for an entire year.

The lack of labelling on products makes it difficult to figure out, especially in supermarkets. Without clear labelling we may end up assuming that all commercial mushroom production has used peat, even if it hasn’t. That’s why we need our roving band of Peat Inspectors, to find out where peat might be hiding in our products and how easy it is to find this information.  Being a Peat Inspector is as simple as keeping an eye out for peat-free labelling, or the lack of it, when you are out and about doing your normal shopping. This information will really help in our call for clear and obvious labelling.

Click the link below to sign up to be a Peat Inspector today!

Precious Peatlands | The Wildlife Trusts

The fun and exciting way to cut out peaty mushrooms would be to grow your own at home. It is easier than you would expect, with lots of home-grown kits being available that are 100% peat-free, such as the selection from Urban Farm-It.

If you’re the adventurous type, you could even learn how to grow them yourself. Oyster mushrooms can easily be grown in wheat straw and shitake mushrooms like to grow on hard wood.

We need better labelling on our products, peat can’t be kept hidden away from us. We need to be able to make our own, informed decision on whether we want to buy a product that contains peat. Help us get peat out of the shadows and into the spotlight, whilst we push to remove it from the supply chain altogether.

*UK mushroom growing uses 100,000 m³ of peat a year – can we do better? - NewScientist, 2022.

Related blog posts