Drinking is central to civilisation...

Alcohol - wine, beer, cider - has been part of human life since before written records began. More than anything else it is the lubricant of society, the cause of conviviality and the begetter of truth. It's also the likely reason we're civilised:

For a long time, humans traveled often and foraged for food, rather than growing it. And that worked pretty well, so anthropologists have long puzzled over why people started settling in a single spot. One benefit to nesting: growing grapes and grains, and staying in a place long enough to brew beverages for weeks or months, as beer and wine require. "Some posit this as the reason that civilization began in villages surrounded by golden fields of barley and rows of grapevines on the hills," Money writes.

And that natural fermentation process, the divine blessing of yeast, made possible those other things central to the pleasures of our lives: bread, chocolate, coffee. Drinking really is central to human civilisation - taking it away, prohibiting its blessings is a terrible, terrible sin.

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Friday Fungus: Mushrooms in Space!

So you've escaped the bounds of Earth and, like Major Tom, are orbiting in your snug space station. The atmosphere is clear and clean, free from asthma triggering, infecting fungus - space is pure!

Ha! Think again:

One mission of the Microbial Observatory Experiments on the International Space Station is to examine the traits and diversity of fungal isolates, to gain a better understanding of how fungi may adapt to microgravity environments and how this may affect interactions with humans in closed habitats. In the new study, led by Benjamin Knox, a microbiology graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Madison, scientists compared two isolates of A. fumigatus that were isolated from the International Space Station to reference isolates from earth.

Through in vitro, in vivo, and genetic analyses, the researchers discovered that the isolates recovered from the space station exhibited normal in vitro growth and chemical stress tolerance, and there were no unexpected genetic differences. The strains in space were slightly more lethal in a vertebrate model of invasive disease, but there was nothing to suggest that as a consequence of spending time in space, there were any significant changes to the fungus.

Yes folks - it's not just that we're squatting on planet fungus but, when we leave for the stars we'll take those mushrooms with us!

Relax though - there's hallucinogenic lichen!

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Public health warnings as social engineering - the case of 'Himalayan Viagra'

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The Chinese government public health authorities have issues warnings about the safety of cordyceps sinensis (better known across Asia by its traditional Tibetan name, yartsa gunbu, which literally translates as "summer grass, winter worm).

...a handful of noted research scientists wonder why there’s been such little scrutiny of the research backing a public health warning from China’s State Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). Citing unsafe levels of cancer-causing arsenic in the fungus, the February 2016 announcement triggered a moratorium on pilot programs designed to expand the organism’s commercial development and distribution.

Connoisseurs of public health research with see a familiar litany of bad science in these announcements - selective research, ignoring studies that challenge the official position and a barrage of popular publicity directed at the offending product. And some suggest the reason for the government's concern is political, more about social engineering than public health. Gathering yartsa gunbu - 'Himalayan Viagra' - is a lucrative business:

According to one yartsa gunbu dealer who asked to remain anonymous, a family with good harvesters stand to make as much as 1,000,000 yuan (about $150,000) within the two month harvest window.

A lucrative business entirely controlled by ethnic Tibetans. And the Chinese government might prefer these people not to control a $1billion business selling weird fungus products to gullible Chinese consumers. So long as Tibetan families with the knowledge of where and how to gather yartsa gunbu are able to live in traditional communities rather than the government's preferred urban environment some suggest there will remain a call for independence.

Or else it could just be another example of a few studies providing the justification for out of control health authorities to ban, limit, control and regulate. The good news it that, so far it ain't working:

Whether any political motivations are driving the Chinese government’s claim to public health concerns about the fungus is yet to be seen. But Professor Tsim, who continues evaluating soil samples, says any regulatory action on the fungus inevitably affects the livelihood of Tibetans. The CFDA announcement has yet to impact Hong Kong prices, he said, and one eBay seller recently posted the fungus for about $78,000 per pound.

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Friday Fungus: the economics of Himalayan mushroom foraging

The Yartsa Gunbu (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) is a weird little fungus that infests a species of Chinese caterpillar eventually growing out from the head of the creature. It is cherished in Chinese medicine and, if you're writing tabloid headlines, the term 'Chinese viagra' is recommended.

The problem is that, as China has got richer, these prized traditional medicines have got ever more prized and ever more expensive. And the Yartsa Gunbu isn't farmed but foraged - this is hunter gathering. So it presents a problem - as Tim Worstall (slightly polemically) puts it:

There are those out there who think that we should return rather to our hunter gatherer roots. Simply pick from nature’s bounty rather than intensively farm the planet. There’s really only one problem with this delightful idea: we’d all starve within months having stripped the Earth of everything edible

Indeed this is very much an issue with Yartsa Gunbu especially given how important it has become for the economy of part of Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet:

With an eight-fold increase in value from ¥4,800 to ¥40,000 per pound (Winkler 2008b: 18) yartsa gunbu has become the mainstay of household economies across the Tibetan Plateau and in the highlands of Nepal, India, and Bhutan. It fills an economic void in Tibetan areas of China that state-sponsored development projects, which tend to focus on infrastructure, do not always satisfy.

So it's no surprise that there are reports of violence, extortion and criminal activity linked to the collection of this valuable product. Plus suggestions that the high prices lead to over-exploitation and the destruction of future production. So it is interesting to see how different communities have responded to this situation and to the threat of over-exploitation. In some areas the Yartsa Gunbu is found on land that is in existing private (or local village) ownership and, as a result the harvest is leased out by the land owner who secure the income in rent rather than by selling the fungus. Elsewhere a controlled number of permits are issued to outsiders and they are limited to specific locations.

However, Geoff Childs and Namgyal Choedup in an article in Himalaya report on two areas that use a different regulatory method to control the exploitation of the Yartsa Gunbu:

Using data from household surveys and in-depth interviews, the authors describe the process of gathering and selling yartsa gunbu within the parameters of management practices that combine religious and secular regulations over natural resources. The authors conclude with a discussion of the indigenous management system in relation to sustainable development.

The review concludes that regulation limiting collection is essential - what different communities have done is limit who can collect and when they can collect. Some, such as the places studied by Childs & Choedup, use traditional controls (religious tradition, inherited collection rights and regulation of collector behaviour) whereas others use more 'modern' approaches such as licensing, permits and leases to limit collection and provide incentives to protect the long-term supply.

The lesson of this is that, for all our modern urban idolising of wild foraging, this practice is pretty bad news for the environment if it is not controlled. As we see with UK demand for wild mushrooms (all that soup and pasta in all those gastro-pubs) and other foraged goods, the result is a problem:

Epping Forest, an ancient woodland straddling the border of greater London and Essex, is one of the best fungi sites in the country, with over 1,600 different species. But, like other fungi-rich sites such as the New Forest, it is being stripped out by illegal picking by gangs believed to sell the wild mushrooms to restaurants and markets

Perhaps rather than - as has happened in Epping Forest - simply banning foraging, we should pay a visit to Nepal and look at how they manage their harvest of an (admittedly pretty odd) wild mushroom.

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Himalayan viagra - an odd story of libido, caterpillars and mushrooms

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This is the tale of Ophiocordyceps sinesis or, if you're more poetic, the Mysterious Caterpillar Mushroom or even, as the Chinese name it - Winter Worm, Summer Grass:

It preys specifically on the larvae of several species of ghost moths in the Thitarodes genus. Spores infect the larvae while they live underground before pupating. The spores germinate and mycelium grows, killing and mummifying the larva/caterpillar. Eventually a fruiting body grows from the mummified larva and pops above ground, reminiscent of something from an awesome science fiction movie. 

So there you have it - a weird mushroom that grows from out of a dead caterpillar's head. And the Chinese can't get enough of it because it is believed to do great things for the immune system and (hence the Himalayan viagra tag) treat erectile dysfunction. And, not surprisingly, the result is that this wonderful little ecosystem is threatened by overharvesting:

“There is a similar trend in other Himalayan countries, such as China, India and Bhutan,” says Liu Xingzhong, a mycologist in the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology in Beijing. On the Tibetan plateau, for instance, the fungus harvest per unit area has dropped by 10 to 30 percent compared with three decades ago....

In one respect, this problem is a reflection of how the myths of libido are so rapacious. This little mushroom may not be as grand as a rhino or as magnificent as a tiger but its decline is for the same reason - the sex drive of Chinese men. But, just as with those great wild mammals, the heart of the problem is the tragedy of the commons - up on the Tibetan plateau no-one owns the places where the caterpillars and their mycological hosts do their thing. And the result is overharvesting and fights over 'territory'. As collectively-owned places, Chinese national parks provide no incentive to limit either the amounts harvested or the numbers of harvesters.

 

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Building the future - from mushrooms!

The future of building is revealed - and it involves mushrooms:

Typically “fungus” and “building” are not words people like to hear together. While we were busy scrubbing the black mold off our bathtubs, David Benjamin, head of the New York architectural firm The Living, was designing the Hy-Fi, a 40-foot-tall circular fungal tower, and potential precursor for more eco-friendly skyscrapers.

As the winner of MoMA’s annual Young Architects Program (YAP), Benjamin will exhibit the Hy-Fi in the courtyard at MoMA’s satellite art and event space PS1 in Queens starting late June. Now in its 15th season, YAP’s theme this year is sustainability and recycling. YAP also wanted a design that would provide shade, seating, and water for attendees of MoMA PS1’s 2014 Warm Up summer music series. Benjamin prevailed with a design he claims will generate no waste, requires no energy, and is 100% organic.

We've already discovered how mushrooms can solve our waste management problems and will grow into eco-friendly cars so it should be no surprise that we will be growing buildings from the little mycological darlings:

To create the Hy-Fi, the fungus bricks will be placed at the bottom the structure, while a second kind of reflective bricks, created with a daylighting mirror film devised by 3M, will be placed at the top. The reflective bricks will focus the light down the tower to create a kind of supersized petri dish, encouraging the mycelium to grow and the bricks to solidify and bond together.

Wonderful!

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Friday Fungus: some mushrooms stories

A few links and such on mushroom matters:

What if you could take 1 million pounds of waste that was heading towards landfill and repurpose it to grow food? Well, that’s exactly what two recent UC Berkeley graduates are doing with their company Back to the Roots.

Founders, Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez started a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm that transforms coffee ground waste into the growing medium for gourmet mushrooms.

Strange-looking pink and yellow mushrooms are set to liven up the vegetable aisle when they go on sale. The exotic mushrooms are not grown in some far-flung part of the world, but in a small village in Lancashire. 

(They're not that exotic - just oyster mushrooms!)

A fungus that makes biodiesel as part of its natural lifecycle has attracted the attention of American scientists wishing to tap into its potential.

Told you mushrooms are amazing!

And in Reading they eat your drive:

A couple were left baffled when their driveway started to erupt only to find it was caused by a crop of mushrooms.

A little taste there of the weird fungal world - a world that contains the world's biggest, oldest and fastest growing living things, a world of things that eat rubbish,  clear up dead stuff and - most importantly - give us beer, bread and wine.

Here's to fungi!

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