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Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of six features on the science of food, running daily from March 30 through April 6, 2009.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa.—Donald "Buster" Needham and his sons Artie and Don are moving their mushrooms out of Pennsylvania. Needham, 73, took over the business from his own father 50 years ago, but his West Grove operation—fueled with several hundred tons of steaming horse and chicken manure each week—has proved too stinky for city folk buying up homes in this township 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Philadelphia.
In 2004 Needham announced plans to expand, but his neighbors shut him down, complaining of fetid odors and the potential for manure runoff to seep into groundwater and nearby streams. "The regulatory people, the township supervisor in the area, and neighbors—they wouldn't accept anything," Needham says.
Slide Show: Inside the Mushroom Science Lab
That October, the township blocked approval of Needham's expansion plans, denying his request for an agricultural security exemption from odor nuisance laws and claiming that he had not met its demands to install state-of-the-art odor-control equipment. Needham successfully appealed the decision in court but the board refused to let it go, taking the case to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, where it has been on hold for two years. In the meantime, Needham is mulling an offer from a developer who wants to turn his farm into a retirement community.
And Needham isn't the only farmer feeling the pinch. Mushroom expert Dan Royse of Pennsylvania State University in University Park says it's the same story all over the Keystone State, which is the nation's largest mushroom producer: Some 500 million pounds (225 million kilograms) of button mushrooms grown within its borders hit the market annually, and at $453 million, mushrooms are the state's largest cash crop. As much as residents rave about the yearly Mushroom Festival in historic Kennett Square each fall, few want a mountain of manure in their backyards. And while Republicans may have raised a fuss last month about federal funding of pig odor research in Iowa, farm odors are a national problem that are pitting agricultural economies against a deluge of suburbanites who thought they wanted a piece of the country lifestyle. That's why Penn State scientists are stepping in to try to make the beleaguered mushroom industry more environmentally friendly.
In early October, Royse brought me out to the university's own mushroom house. Kept at a constant 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 degrees Celsius), the dark rooms had a slightly musty odor, but—lucky for me—the sulfuric smells that occur during the earlier composting phase had already faded. Seven wooden shelves were stacked atop one another and arranged in two long rows. Every 10 minutes a humidifier sent a jet of steam into the air, and water trickled down the cinder block walls. Royse stepped over a puddle and shined his flashlight on the pale button mushrooms, alienlike and devoid of all color, they were crammed together like eggs in a carton. The mushrooms popped up so quickly during two seven-day "flushes" that commercial pickers had to come through five times daily.
The world of fungi is indeed alien. It is an organism that bridges the chasm between plant and animal: They are rooted in the ground like a plant, but whereas plants breathe carbon dioxide (CO2) and use the sun's energy to convert the gas into sugars, fungi need to "eat" solid carbon and break it down with the oxygen they absorb—much like an animal. If you plant a cornstalk in the ground, the soil won't disappear around it, but that's exactly what happens to the compost here. The fuzzy filaments that permeate the mixture are what Royse calls "the pipes" that feed the mushrooms. By the time the crop is harvested—five pounds per square foot (about 24 kilograms per square meter) the dry weight of the compost below will have decreased by 20 percent.
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7 Comments
Add Commentif you don't like the smell of agriculture, stay in the city?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiscities stink! I'll take the smell of agriculture in the country any day. if you don't like smell of manure don't buy a house down wind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis sulfur emitted by the compost business is toxic. We have had several environmental tests done in this area and they KNOW it's toxic, but the township has been fighting archaic agricultural laws to get these industrial farmers out. This is not your run-of-the-mill "farm". It's like having a toxic waste dump in your back yard. We were here BEFORE this new greatly increased polluting method of composting was introduced. We are trying to save our environment while the mushroom compost folks are systematically destroying it. We have encouraged composters to use new technology to cut out the odors, and some mushroom compost farmers have done so with great success. Needham refuses. He should not be allowed to endanger our kids whose school air lies in the path of the fumes he emits. Its noxious and unsafe, and our kids are out playing on a football field that reeks. Its unhealthy and has driven countless other businesses, as well as homeowners, out of town. Property values plummet and Needham gets rich. We are wasting tax dollars as Needham drags his feet forcing this never-ending court case to continue. How does he sleep at night??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhy make them enviromentaly friendly? they are fungi and they tast desgusting anyway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhy make them enviromentaly friendly? they are fungi and they tast desgusting anyway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"farm odors are a national problem that are pitting agricultural economies against a deluge of suburbanites who thought they wanted a piece of the country lifestyle."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy is an aspect of prior use not entirely grandfathered in the zoning laws? People who move into the country should be made to be accepting of the fact they may see and smell cows.
Or they can stay in the city.
Why would you choose to live in an area where you know this is what you will live with? This farm has been there for generations, much longer than most of the houses nearby. If you want them to build the modern, odor reducing systems to compost, perhaps you should donate $20,000,000 plus or minus to help them get it done. I am sure in this economy it wont be a problem. People move out to the country and all they do is whine about the odors, the bugs, how far it is to the store, etc....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI recommend moving.