Academician Li Yu selected as the 2021 "Food Hero"

A few days ago, the 2021 "Food Hero" selection activity jointly initiated by the Representative Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in China and the Headline Sannong in China and organized by the Department of Planting Industry of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China came to an end. After the first round of expert review and the second round of public voting, Li Yu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor of our school recommended by our school and the Horticultural Specialties Department of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Jilin Province, was selected as the "Food Hero" of 2021.

It is reported that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has designated 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, so this year's "Food Heroes" (where "food" refers to the broad concept of food) will be themed as "Fruit and Vegetable Heroes" to recognize "Fruit and Vegetable Heroes" who have made outstanding contributions to fruit and vegetable production, reducing fruit and vegetable loss and waste and related healthy diet promotion. A total of 6 "food heroes" were selected in three categories, including scientific research, enterprise and other categories.

Li Yu, who is 77 years old this year, is currently the only academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in the field of edible mushrooms in China. Over the years, Academician Li Yu and his team have traveled to more than 40 deep poverty areas in Jilin Wangqing, Zhejiang Qingyuan, Shanxi Linxian, Guizhou Tongren, Hebei Fuping, promoted the establishment of 31 edible mushroom technology promotion demonstration bases, supported 22 edible mushroom leading enterprises, helped more than 800 villages, and more than 35,000 poor farmers to completely get rid of poverty, with an annual output value of more than 35 billion yuan. On February 25, 2021, at the National Poverty Alleviation Summary and Commendation Conference, Academician Li Yu was awarded the honorary title of "National Poverty Alleviation Model".

As the leader of "small fungus, large industry", Li Yu carried out edible mushroom poverty alleviation work in Huangsongdian Town, Jiaohe City, Jilin Province, Wangqing County and other places as early as the 1990s, explored the "scientific and technological experts + demonstration base + agricultural technicians + scientific and technological demonstration households + radiation-driven farmers" of edible mushroom science and technology poverty alleviation model, and took the lead in advocating the development strategy of "north ear southward expansion" and "south mushroom northward shift" in the country. Through the efforts of Academician Li Yu for more than 30 years, Huangsongdian Town has been built into a well-known black fungus town in the country, and Wangqing County and Jiaohe City have been rated as national-level black fungus characteristic agricultural products.

Every year in early spring, when the first rays of the morning sun shine on the valley, Academician Li Yu and his students have already begun a day's trek, they are in the mountains to check the "treasure hunt", starting from the first small mushroom arch soil, every 10 days, they have to return to the mountain, carefully observe the growth status of mushrooms, carefully collect samples. This kind of work, Academician Li Yu has insisted on more than 40 years, doing a good job in the investigation and conservation of Chinese his own edible mushroom resources, which is the goal he pursues all his life in scientific research. In recent years, Li Yu and his team have successfully created China's first fungal germplasm resource bank, collecting and preserving rare edible and medicinal mushrooms of important economic value cultivated and wild worldwide, covering a total of 11,000 copies of wild germplasm resources. Among them, there are more than 400 species of slime molds alone, accounting for more than 70% of the world's known species, and 36 new species of slime molds have been found and named.

"Deeply plant the mushroom complex in the cultivation of life, dedicate lifelong self-consciousness to the mushroom cause, the freedom to gallop between the fungi world, and let the mushroom farmers get rich and well-off." This is the motto that Academician Li Yu has adhered to all his life.

Source: Engineering Research Center of Food and Medicinal Mushrooms of the Ministry of Education

Editor-in-charge: Hu Xin

Review: Liu Qingzhu