Mushrooms Continued from Page 3 “Our customers definitely are looking for that kind of transparency,” Garrone said. In its statement opposing the rescis- sion of the regulations, the Organic Trade Association cited data showing sales of U.S.-grown organic mushrooms stagnated in recent years, while imports of Canadian- grown organic mushrooms, which are subject to stricter standards, increased. Farmers and trade groups blamed the lack of demand for U.S.-grown organic mush- rooms on poorly developed regulations. “Current regulations do not address the unique nature of mushroom and pet food production,” Weber said. “This, in turn, erodes trust in the organic seal because consumers expect the organic label to rep- resent a consistent and reliable standard.” Contributing to the need for new reg- ulations, growers said, was an increase during the past decade in substrate for specialty mushrooms imported from China by U.S. producers. For a quarter of what it costs Far West Fungi to produce its own substrate from domestically sourced materials, Garrone said, other farms began importing blocks of premade substrate from China. When it arrives in the U.S., the import- ed substrate is already colonized by my- celium, a process that takes two to three months, with importing producers able
supply all the mushrooms the stores want to sell, including specialty mushrooms. Farms with contracts then source specialty mushrooms from farms that specialize in growing them. “At one point, we were supplying the en- tire industry with shiitake mushrooms,” said Louis Caputo, co-owner of KSS Sales, a Pennsylvania-based specialty mushroom purveyor and distributor that grows con- ventional and organic mushrooms. When imported blocks of substrate became available, he said, it became so easy to produce specialty mushrooms that large mushroom farms cut out the farms that supplied them and began growing their own. “Instead of buying a product from a domestic supplier, they’re basically pro- ducing it much cheaper with all the same labeling,” Caputo said. “We started losing shiitake sales.” He said he was not familiar with USDA’s proposal to rescind the new organic reg- ulations, but added “any hurdle that can make it harder for importers is good for us.” USDA did not respond to questions from Ag Alert ® about its proposed rescis- sion of the National Organic Program’s Market Development for Mushrooms and Pet Food. Caleb Hampton is assistant editor of Ag Alert. He can be reached at champton@cfbf.com.
Workers at Far West Fungi in Monterey County place substrate made from sawdust and agricultural byproducts into bags. Growers say imports of premade substrate blocks have “undermined” farms.
to harvest mushrooms from the substrate within a week or two. These mushrooms are still labeled as organic, growers said, even if components of the substrate were not carefully inspected. “As an industry, we were like, hey, we need to have some distinction” between mushrooms grown from imported sub-
strate versus domestically produced sub- strate, Garrone said. “The restrictions were very loose, and it basically undermined the U.S. grower,” he added. Because white mushrooms dominate U.S. sales, farms that grow them typical- ly win contracts from major retailers to
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6 Ag Alert June 18, 2025
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