In the summer I was poking about Europe with my wife and daughter with the idea of potentially moving there. While in southern France we were struck with the rather poor selection, relative to both China and France's elevated status in global culinary circles[0], of readily commercially available fungi species. After encountering an abandoned sawmill outside of Toulouse I set out on a few day thought experiment to determine ballpark figures on setting up a commercial mushroom farm, which in turn caused me to email some leading robotics-related professors who had published recent papers on picking-type robots. I explained the relatively unique situation we were in with respect to capacity to select species (to some extent), facility site, process and layout to enable automation. Their answer? Nothing yet flying too well. Apparently, the simple task of snipping mushrooms off substrate blocks is too difficult for mainstream AI. While I am now back in China enjoying a much wider range of mushrooms (two reishi on my bookshelf) and a new hobby of orchid-gardening[1], do get in touch if you're potentially interested in co-exploring/co-investing in research for this space. I also have an interest in developing automated offshore seaweed farming.
[0] For example a book I read yesterday espoused the view that there are really only three globally significant cuisines: Anatolian, Chinese and French.
I'm so happy. My little sis is an o-chem major and OBSESSED with fungi, this will be a fun link to send her way, thanks for this completely oddball post!
Check out this post about how mycelial networks act as an organic internet for plant species to communicate.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden...