Meet the urban farmer sprouting mushrooms from coffee waste in Portugal

euronews (in English)

In partnership with Media City, Qatar. It wasn't a love for coffee or mushrooms that motivated Natan Jacquemin to become an urban farmer; rather, it was the care and concern for the environment.

Transcript

00:00 Mushrooms are not only really good for health, they can solve a lot of other problems.

00:07 In nature, we could degrade organic waste, also maybe plastic waste.

00:11 We could use mushrooms to make building materials.

00:14 By discovering the power of mushrooms, I understand how to recycle waste.

00:19 I'm Nathan Jackmin. I'm the founder of NAMM.

00:22 We upcycle coffee waste into delicious mushrooms and fertilizer.

00:27 NAMM

00:30 At NAMM, we upcycle around 3 tons of coffee waste into 2 or 3 tons of mushrooms per month.

00:44 The daily process is quite simple.

00:47 We did a partnership with Delta Café, the biggest distributor of coffee in Portugal.

00:54 Delta Café goes every day into the offices or universities and collects the coffee waste.

00:59 We work exclusively with these vending machines because they guarantee that the coffee waste is fresh and also that no one touches it.

01:13 So the idea is to have the best raw material for our mushrooms.

01:19 Delta collects around 100 kilos of coffee waste per day, then they bring it to us.

01:24 We do a little treatment.

01:31 Then we incubate the bags for 2 to 3 weeks inside an incubation room, where we mimic the conditions of nature.

01:41 Then the mushrooms start growing.

01:45 NAMM

01:48 We then collect the mushrooms and deliver the mushrooms only to local clients.

02:00 Everything we grow, we only sell it 15 kilometers from our farms to be as local as possible and have a positive ecological impact.

02:14 I didn't invent the idea of upcycling coffee waste into mushrooms.

02:18 It was actually something that was discovered in the 90s by a Chinese scientist.

02:24 I wanted to find a way to make money but also have a positive impact.

02:28 More and more young people want to solve problems that are bigger than themselves.

02:37 To solve a problem that you see in society.

02:40 Nowadays they call that a social entrepreneur.

02:43 That's really what I want to be.

02:45 Everything started 5 years ago.

02:53 I discovered we could grow mushrooms out of coffee waste.

02:56 So I just started collecting coffee waste in the city center of Lisbon.

03:00 I had a small sort of basement.

03:02 I was collecting only from local coffees around.

03:09 I would go every morning collecting the coffee waste.

03:12 After 6 months I got my first mushrooms.

03:15 I decided it was time to try to scale up the idea and try to have more impact.

03:19 One of his former professors recommended Nathan to speak with our company because he immediately saw the fit.

03:31 Our company invests in startups that can create economic and social impact.

03:39 We are more than happy with this collaboration since the beginning.

03:42 The idea is to give back a little bit to the community.

03:45 My passion is really about circular economy.

03:52 How you can use waste to reintroduce that waste inside of the economy and create more value.

03:57 I think that's the only way we can create an economy that is going to last.

04:05 The way our economy is built is that everything we take, we make and we throw.

04:11 If we continue that way, we're going to destroy nature.

04:14 I wanted to find a way to reconcile economy and ecology.

04:20 To take, to make and then trying to reuse that as much as possible.

04:23 Waste that we can create more value out of is not wasted.

04:28 We have waste inside the country.

04:30 That is actually the leftover from the mushroom production.

04:33 We then offer those bags to the city of Lisbon.

04:37 They use that as a fertilizer for the gardens, plants, flowers or for anything they use inside of the city.

04:44 That's how we close the loop.

04:46 I thought the biggest impact we would have at NAMM would be to upcycle coffee waste into mushrooms and be local.

04:55 But I really believe the biggest impact that we have is to educate people about the world of mushrooms.

05:01 How we can change our mind about what waste really is, about the world of sustainability and circular economy.

05:08 NAMM is also an inspiration for us internally to develop this model.

05:14 If you understand the impact and the potential, this will be the economic model of the future.

05:19 It's not only about having a positive impact and upcycling coffee waste.

05:22 It's trying to integrate people that have a little less chance than us.

05:26 And finding new ways to have a positive impact in society.

05:31 All of that goes together.

05:33 The idea is definitely to expand.

05:36 Maybe in one year being able to replicate that business model in other cities.

05:43 In other countries. There is still a lot to discover.

05:49 [Music]

05:53 [Music]

05:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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