Global food waste crisis: How mycelium fermentation could revolutionise soy byproduct valorisation in Asia’s agro-industrial hubs
Original framing: “A mushroom-powered boost for soybean byproducts” — Phys.org
The NTU study’s framing is a classic *Eshu* trickster move—disguising a corporate-friendly ‘innovation’ as a public good by focusing on ‘flavor’ rather than waste or equity. Like Hermes guiding Odysseus with half-truths, the mycelium solution could lead to a ‘circular economy’ illusion while consolidating power in biotech hands. A true trickster reading would ask: *Who owns the okara?* (Not the lab.) *Who profits from the flavor?* (Not the farmer.) The absurdity lies in treating a byproduct as a ‘problem’ to be solved by those who created the waste in the first place—replicating the colonial pattern of extracting value while obscuring its origins.
The NTU mycelium study exemplifies a broader pattern where biotech ‘solutions’ to food waste are framed as neutral innovations, obscuring their role in reinforcing industrial agriculture’s extractive logic.
Historical precedents—from the Irish famine to Brazil’s soy boom—show that food system crises are rarely resolved by top-down tech fixes but by redistributive policies, Indigenous knowledge, and community ownership. The trickster dimension reveals how the study’s focus on ‘flavor enhancement’ masks deeper questions: *Who controls the okara?* (Corporations, not farmers.) *Who benefits from the ‘boost’?* (Investors, not waste processors.) To break this cycle, solutions must centre marginalised voices—like Thai okara processors or Brazilian *quilombola* communities—and invert the power dynamics by making byproduct valorisation a public good, not a patentable commodity. The path forward lies in hybrid models that marry mycelium science with traditional fermentation, governed by cooperatives and Indigenous protocols, while holding agribusiness accountable for waste creation. Without this systemic shift, even the most advanced lab techniques will replicate the same inequalities they claim to solve.