How London-grown mushrooms could be a future cancer-killer

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To mark the anniversary, we are revisiting five stories that had an impact on the community and on our reporters and staff.

Here is one of those stories.

Not many mushroom farms can say they get regular visits from people suffering from cancer, but Shogun MaitakeCanada is not your average mushroom farm.

It's one of the few growers in North America that offer top quality maitakemushrooms, a frilly, leathery, wild-looking fungi steeped in ancient Japanese myth that is as prized by foodies for their delicate flavour andtexture as it is are by health nuts.

The mushroom has areputation for lowering bloodpressure,cholesterol, boosting the immune system. It's even being studied by scientists as a potential cancer-killer.

"Since we are here, many people who are suffering from cancer knock on our door and ask about our mushrooms," said Shogun Maitake Canada's founder and CEO Yoshinobu Odaira."We are talking to Western University about doing clinical trial research together."

The best kind of problem

It's one example of the booming success the 69-year-old Japanese businessman has had since he first built his14,000 square foot hydroponic farm south of Lambeth less than a year ago.

Since then, Odairahas had the best kind of problem a business could ever hope for.

"We just don't have enough mushrooms, that's the problem," he said."Sales have been increasing dramatically."

Not only have sales increased tenfold in the last eight months, the company has been getting calls from all over North America, selling mushrooms as big as cabbagesas far afield as Texas and California.

In fact, Odairagrows such a top quality product, his mushrooms end up on the plates of Michelin star restaurants in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and New York.

Ambitious plans tied up in red tape

OnceOdaira'sfarm on Colonel Talbot Roadreaches full capacity, Shogun Maitake will produce about 1,000 pounds ofmushrooms a day and even that isn't enough.

"We have a lot of demand," he said. "Even the maximum production of this facility is not enough to meet demand from all the customers."

Odaira wants to expand his operation to a 100,000 square foot facility with 50 to 70 employees, butso far those plans have been stymied by a 30-year-old by-law meant to keep urban development from gobbling upland that's meant for agricultural production.

"I didn't know there were so many regulations and laws that exist in Ontario," he said. "We have been having troubleovercoming those regulations."

'All we can do is wait'

The company soughtan exemption from city hall abouteight months ago and is still waiting.

"We are asking our lawyer to solve this problem as quickly as possible,"Odaira said."All we can do is wait until the city says okay."

'Our maitake is the best in North America'

City hall isn't the only albatross hanging aroundOdaira's neck, with the simmering tensions between Canada and the United States over tradethe prospect that the North American Free Trade Agreement could be dramatically altered or scrapped altogether.

Despite that, the Japanese businessman says he's confident in the quality of his product.

"There are somemaitakegrowers in the United States, but we have confidence ourmaitakeis the best in North America," he said. "The price of the product will go up, but I believe the American people will pay the price for our mushroom."

Still, Odairahas made contingency plans, just incase.

"IfNAFTAfails," Odairasaid. "We will concentrateon selling our freshmaitakein Canada and at the same time, we will sell our driedmaitakeas an ingredient in health food and in pharmaceutical drugs."

Despite troubles with city hall and turbulence on trade with the U.S., Odairais still confident he can make London the heart of a business empire, a city that will on day have several large scale maitakemushroom factories, shipping all over the continent.

"We our very proud of our maitakemushroom," he said. "We're happy to make money from our business, but more than that, people who buy our product and eat our mushroom become healthy."