But, warns Zhang, we would be wise to proceed with caution. “Using fungi as a technology for remediating the environment, you might break the eco-balance because you’re introducing new bio-conditions to the ecosystem. So you want to be very careful. We’re culturing a lot of mushrooms right now and they’re getting released into the natural forest environment, and usually the mushrooms released from farms are very competitive. They can kick out other mushrooms. It’s a big concern for the conservation of natural mushroom species.”

Not exactly something that aligns with the idea of “human scale”, but the principle seems interesting.