181
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
X. Dai et al. (eds.), Fungi in Sustainable Food Production, Fungal Biology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64406-2_11
Chapter 11
Fungi: A Potential Future Meat Substitute
Meganathan Bhuvaneswari and Nallusamy Sivakumar
11.1 Introduction
In the past century, worldwide agriculture production was significantly improved to
provide food supply to meet the demands of the rapidly growing population. Just
10% increase of the cultivable land area results in a doubled production (FAO 2010).
But the most drastic parts are the population explosion, urbanization, lifestyle
change, poverty, health conditions, and dietary requirements which affect the global
agricultural production (Augustin et al. 2016). Food industry, one of the largest
exploiters of environment and resources, leads to severe loss of biodiversity and
degradation of ecosystem (Dunne et al. 2002; Tscharntke et al. 2012; Röös et al.
2013). Most of the water footprint, around 70–85%, is mainly from human activities
toward agriculture. Even around 30% of the total greenhouse gases were emitted as
a side product of the agricultural sector (Smetana et al. 2015). Livestock production
accounts for the largest emitter of methane. Having meat in our diet is nowadays
unfriendly for the environment because of the inefficient usage of land, water, and
energy and also for the amount of unwanted gases released through meat production
(Pimentel and Pimentel 2003, McMichael et al. 2007).
Finding meat substitutes or replacers and commercializing them is still in infancy
stage since the market share is just 1–2% of the total meat market. The consumers
of meat substitutes are influenced by the nutritional effect of the substitute and its
environmental impact. In the middle of this century, the global population is about
to decelerate its growth and may reach the plateau of nine billion which will exert
an extra pressure to feed this population (Godfray et al. 2010). Thus, the main future
M. Bhuvaneswari
Department of Biotechnology, Sona College of Arts and Science, Salem, India
N. Sivakumar (*)
Department of Biology, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat,
Sultanate of Oman
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
X. Dai et al. (eds.), Fungi in Sustainable Food Production, Fungal Biology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64406-2_11
Chapter 11
Fungi: A Potential Future Meat Substitute
Meganathan Bhuvaneswari and Nallusamy Sivakumar
11.1 Introduction
In the past century, worldwide agriculture production was significantly improved to
provide food supply to meet the demands of the rapidly growing population. Just
10% increase of the cultivable land area results in a doubled production (FAO 2010).
But the most drastic parts are the population explosion, urbanization, lifestyle
change, poverty, health conditions, and dietary requirements which affect the global
agricultural production (Augustin et al. 2016). Food industry, one of the largest
exploiters of environment and resources, leads to severe loss of biodiversity and
degradation of ecosystem (Dunne et al. 2002; Tscharntke et al. 2012; Röös et al.
2013). Most of the water footprint, around 70–85%, is mainly from human activities
toward agriculture. Even around 30% of the total greenhouse gases were emitted as
a side product of the agricultural sector (Smetana et al. 2015). Livestock production
accounts for the largest emitter of methane. Having meat in our diet is nowadays
unfriendly for the environment because of the inefficient usage of land, water, and
energy and also for the amount of unwanted gases released through meat production
(Pimentel and Pimentel 2003, McMichael et al. 2007).
Finding meat substitutes or replacers and commercializing them is still in infancy
stage since the market share is just 1–2% of the total meat market. The consumers
of meat substitutes are influenced by the nutritional effect of the substitute and its
environmental impact. In the middle of this century, the global population is about
to decelerate its growth and may reach the plateau of nine billion which will exert
an extra pressure to feed this population (Godfray et al. 2010). Thus, the main future
M. Bhuvaneswari
Department of Biotechnology, Sona College of Arts and Science, Salem, India
N. Sivakumar (*)
Department of Biology, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat,
Sultanate of Oman