Already in 1963 Husband Pieter Mentioned Racism in Mushroom Growing

In the Dutch magazine CHAMPIGNONCULTUUR-1963-2 my husband Pieter published this:

Does Skin Color Determine the Value?

You see a White Agaricus bisporus point at a Brown Agaricus bisporus and making it look very SAD!

Racism in the Netherlands?

Does Skin Color Determine the Value?

Whites better than brown ones? Fortunately, we think this is an absurd idea in the Netherlands in general. Although...!! In our profession, mushroom cultivation, one knows the difference in skin color, the difference between white and brown, and strange enough, it is thought here that whites are better than brown ones. What is hidden under a brown mushroom skin is at least as good, if not better than under a white skin. A brown mushroom can certainly grow as easily as a white one, the yield is higher as a rule and because brown mushrooms get a little thicker in diameter, they require less picking-labor. The taste is at least as good and they are a bit more resistant to transport etc. than the white varieties.

Nevertheless, the trade generally values the brown ones less than fair skinned (in our case the white ones), although it is known that certain canning industries and soup manufacturers have sufficient processing options for brown varieties.
The fact that the Dutch housewife still believes that the whites are better than the browns, we can still understand that, often ignorance plays a role here. However, the manufacturing industry and trade may know that underneath that colored skin lies a product that has the same or better properties than anything traded with white skin.
It will be on this racial issue: a question of too little knowledge of the capacities present and a large dose of incomprehension and mistrust. So let those who can improve this, quickly convene a round table conference and find a solution to this.
Fortunately, there is little sense of racial discrimination in the Netherlands and Europe. That is why we hope that racial discrimination in mushroom cultivation will soon be a thing of the past.

P.J.V.

Pieter's bosses Drs. P. J. Bels and his wife Dr. H.C. Bels Koning were the editors for the magazine and they kind of abbreviated names. They made Pieter's P.J.C. Vedder into a shortened version...

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