Throwing this idea out in hopes it strikes a chord with someone who can run with it.
Hay bale netting made from edible mycelium.
I’m new to ranching and recently learned that most hay bales are wrapped in plastic netting. Strands end up all over the fields and can kill livestock if eaten. One of my mentors said “someone really needs to make this stuff edible.” I started digging through the google and only found a few prospects. They are all within the last few years and none appear to have gone into commercial production yet. The prototypes use
flax, hemp, and bioplastic.
I’ve enjoyed reading about the mycelium insulation and building projects in these forums and branched out from there into looking at the companies using fungi to grow customized shapes for product packaging. It seems like it has a lot of potential as an environmentally safe alternative netting.
It would need to be flexible
enough to wrap a bale, sturdy enough to hold up in transit, and safe for livestock to eat.
I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts.
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