Shroom Sabha is a community-founded, community-led, non-profit festival dedicated to fungi and the many worlds they connect. Conceived by a group of mycophiles who wanted to share their fascination beyond specialist circles, it has grown into India's first and only festival devoted entirely to fungi. More than an annual event, Shroom Sabha is an attempt to cultivate a fungal culture in India—one rooted in curiosity, ecological literacy, creativity, and care. The festival is s

Researchers from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and São Paulo State University (UNESP) have isolated four fungi from the gut of the cotton bollworm caterpillar (Helicoverpa armigera) and shown, using scanning electron microscopy, that each one can alter the surface of polystyrene film. When fed expanded polystyrene, the caterpillar's gut microbiome shifted, with the yeast genus Diutina declining and potentially plastic-degrading genera including Aspergillus, Ta

The global edible fungi market is projected to reach USD 50.4 billion by 2033, yet high moisture content and rapid deterioration mean roughly 10% of China's crop alone is discarded due to quality loss. Mushrooms spoil through four interlocking processes — respiration, water loss, enzyme-driven browning, and microbial infection — and emerging technologies from cold plasma to chitosan coatings are being developed to interrupt each of them. A review outlines how combining intell

The Good Food Institute's June 2025 meta-analysis of 55 published techno-economic models finds that biomass fermentation proteins, including mycoprotein, are approaching cost parity with beef and pork, while precision fermentation proteins and microbial oils face a steeper climb. Published models overestimate production costs because they assume smaller scales and lower fermentation concentrations than commercial reality; a private-sector case study from Hawkwood Biotech proj

SpawnX commercialises a standardised mushroom farm package to produce oyster, King Oyster and shiitake mushrooms at a net cost of €4 to €5 per kilogram, against the €17 to €20 per kilogram it attributes to conventional European farms. The model separates the technically demanding work from the farming: SpawnX produces liquid spawn by precision liquid fermentation at its own facility and delivers it to growers, who run containerised substrate lines, movable growing racks and a