ABSTRACT
Fungi are an important component of the food supply to many grazing animals. How many of us have picked a mushroom in the woods only to find it riddled with holes and full of fly larvae and other invertebrates? In many European countries, wild mushrooms are an important component of human’s diet. In recent times, however, the cultivation of mushrooms by commercial growers has become more important than personal fungal forays, especially as the commercial production of mushrooms is independent of season. Indeed, the value of mushrooms as a food source for humans runs to a sale of approximately 426,625 Mg of Agaricus and specialty mushrooms in the United States at a sales value of $863 million (data for the year 2000-2001, National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA).
