The Chester County tradition of growing mushrooms started by Quakers in the 1800s is now an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year, writes Corinne Segal for PBS NewsHour.

Commercial mushroom farms use indoor farming, so they can carefully control the environment and maximize production in a sustainable way.

“It’s not possible to produce mushrooms in commercial quantities without completely controlling the environment,” said Michael Guttman, Director of the Sustainable Development Office for Kennett Township.

Guttman said that Kennett Township and Kennett Square have thus become the world’s largest producers of fresh mushrooms and are at the forefront of innovations in the industry.

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“The newer facilities, they now employ aluminum shelving that has tracks, so that you can run different types of equipment up and down,” said Guttman. “That makes a big difference.”

However, newcomers to growing mushrooms indoors still have to overcome several obstacles.

“I think their biggest challenge is to be able to both produce in large quantities and get that distributed,” said Guttman. “Several companies I’ve talked to have actually cancelled projects because they couldn’t figure out how they would distribute it.”

Read more about Chester County’s mushroom industry from PBS NewsHour here.

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