Part of What The Food
Conversation with Below Farm
Mushrooms have a unique ability to support both human and planetary health. They can be cultivated following circular principles, upcycling byproducts of other agricultural industries, without the need for pesticides or fertilisers, using relatively low water. Their reasonably high protein content plus their meaty texture & umami flavour makes them a healthy meat alternative, as well as offering many, varied functional health benefits.
At Below Farm, we grow mushrooms in the desert, bringing the wonders of the fungi kingdom to the Middle East. Because, until recently, the only mushroom you could find in the UAE supermarket was a white button mushroom. But reducing the vast fungi kingdom and all of the edible mushrooms within it to just that one, is equivalent to taking the animal kingdom and all the meat that comes from it, and just eating chicken. There is a huge range of diversity in flavour, texture, preparations and health benefits. We saw an opportunity to establish the region’s first localised mushroom farm: from seed to fruit.
Bronte Weir is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of UAE-based Below Farm, which uses the power of fungi as nature’s tool in the circular economy to take waste organic plant matter in arid climates and produce nutritious food: mushrooms.
Socially certified, Below Farm is recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Top Innovator in the Circular Economy space, and a speaker at COP28, Bronte’s mission is to create climate smart food system, from both a production and consumption perspective. She has a Masters of Chemistry from The University of Edinburgh, and a background in R&D for multinational Consumer Goods companies.