María Rosas Alcántara
Innovator
Setacor
Spain
Environmental
Rural Areas
Rural village
The innovation journey
Specifically, she developed a production model that integrates mushrooms and extra virgin olive oil. The products distributed are sauces or pâtés made with mushrooms from environmentally friendly, circular cultivation. The project started out of pure curiosity to explore mushroom cultivation. Presently, María operates independently without assistance. During olive harvesting, she piles up olive tree leaves with cereals to form substrates for mushroom growth, minimising environmental impact by avoiding air conditioning.
María sells silk and olive oil, with the latter sold to a cooperative. She holds ecological and biodynamic certifications and is expanding sales to end consumers through social networks and consumer groups. Although she is not looking to expand the shop, María aims to diversify mushroom types rich in polyphenols. She collaborates with the University of Seville to produce animal feed, addressing the excess purine issue in the north of Cordoba province due to dam contamination from antibiotics used in animal husbandry.
The innovation impact
Being a woman and having created a project that is different from the usual ones has helped María Rosas to receive awards and visibility.
Specifically, she won the Ministry of Agriculture Award, for Excellence in Innovation, in 2020. Of great importance is the positive environmental impact, as the integrated production of mushrooms and oil strengthens the environment through the use of circular and ecological farming practices, which help to protect the biodiversity of the local ecosystem.
Furthermore, through the use of its ingredients, María ensures sustainability and autonomy for its business model. A further success is María’s demonstration of courage by cultivating new varieties of mushrooms, such as pink ones. This makes the pâtés and sauces produced from them of high quality. María’s initiative also contributes to the local community, creating jobs, benefiting the rural environment and strengthening the local economy. Of great importance is the role that Maria Rosas gives to the use of organic products from ecological cultivation, as well as the decision not to use any type of air conditioning. It is an example to follow to try to combat climate change starting from a small scale.