Panel reveals significance of mushrooms

Mushrooms are simple to produce, but have vast ecological, physical and spiritual benefits, according to members of a panel discussion on fungi at Champion Brewing Company on April 20.

The fungi are food first and foremost, said Megan Jones of Host Defense, a mushroom supplement company, but many types have been shown to have health benefits. A National Institute of Health study found the consumption of a Turkey Tail mushroom supplement significantly improved the immune systems of breast cancer patients following chemotherapy.

“Different mushrooms correspond with different systems of the body,” Jones said.

The Lion’s Mane mushroom has been shown to improve neurological function, while Chaga mushrooms benefit the body’s soft tissues, Jones said.

Though the superfood label — which nutrition scientists have denounced as misleading —  is thought of as relatively new, Jones said the idea has been around for much longer.

“But they have been a really great way for us to connect with new customers and get over the mycophobia [fear of fungi] in this country,” Jones said.

Mushrooms also have ecological benefits, Jones said, citing their use as a way to

counteract the high rate of bee Colony Collapse Disorder, which occurs when there is an absence of worker bees, rendering the hive vulnerable and unproductive. Factors such as the prevalence of the invasive Varroa mite, pesticide use, changes in habitat and diseases damage a bee’s immune system and are potential causes of Colony Collapse Disorder.  

“Not only are mushrooms really important for the immune systems of people, we’ve found they’re really important for bee immunity, too,” Jones said.

Chef Douglas Andrae discussed how the Metarhizium fungus can be used to target the Varroa mites that contribute to Colony Collapse Disorder.

Mushrooms can also be used in place of fertilizers like chemical nitrogen, which is harder for plants to absorb, Andrae said.

“If we use certain kinds of fungi to remediate the fields, we’re doing a much more fertilization,” Andrae said. “We can use less than a tenth of the product and still get better uptake for the crops.”

Andrae spoke on the history of human cultivation of mushrooms, citing the discovery of “Ötzi,” a 5,000-year-old mummy with a pouch containing fungal fragments discovered in the Swiss Alps, as evidence for the earliest European use of the fungi for medicinal purposes.

“He also had 61 tattoos, so he probably would have fit in in this room pretty well,” Andrae said at Champion Brewing Company.

Former Protestant minister and theologian Ian Wesley spoke on his research on the use of psychoactive mushrooms in the ancient world, particularly in terms of their religious roles.

“There were drugs all over the ancient world,” Wesley said. “We have artwork, we have archeology unearthing all these mushroom totems on every continent.”

Wesley has done linguistic studies of religious documents, “figuring out what did they really say before they were translated” several times over, he said. These studies have supported his belief that psychoactive mushrooms played a role in religion texts like the Bible.

Animist cultures — those who believe all things have a “soul” — were particularly avid users of mushrooms for religious purposes. The whole of humanity followed this model before the concept of hierarchy was established, Wesley said.

Drugs like marijuana and psychoactive mushrooms are not conducive to a hierarchal society, Wesley said. For this reason, governments and religious entities started to regulate the substances.

“It’s demoralizing to an army to suddenly feel for their enemy,” Wesley said. “Somebody who’s making the beyond accessible to the common man [with drugs] has to be stopped.”

Georgia Geen Spectrum Editor