Juniper White

Food insecurity threatens communities around the world, and SMCC is no exception. From the Captain’s Cupboard literature: “Student Senate conducted a survey in 2012/2013 which showed 2.8% of students are [houseless], 31.5% struggled to keep food on the table consistently, and 9.9% did not have adequate transportation which prohibited them from accessing food.”

One strategy to build food resiliency is to teach communities how to grow their own food with very little resources. Vegetables require good light, soil, and space—unlike their sisters in the queendom fungi. Growing mushrooms requires only ambient light, decent humidity, and very little space. Playing the role of nature’s decomposers, they can thrive on post-consumer waste products like coffee grounds and newspaper, which can be easily obtained for free. A little knowledge and experimentation is all it takes to reliably put mushrooms on the table.
Oyster mushrooms are one of the easiest species to cultivate, alongside shiitake. Oysters are considered gourmet and commonly retail at $10 per pound, but they can be produced at home for basically free, with only some spent coffee grounds, starter spawn, and a plastic bag. Besides being delicious, they boast high levels of protein, fiber, and iron, with significant levels of zinc, potassium, selenium, calcium, phosphorus, folic acid, and vitamins B1, B3, B5, B12, C, and D. With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why they’re considered gourmet.

What’s difficult to understand is why growing and eating mushrooms isn’t common place in our society. A big reason is “mycophobia” or fear of fungi. We’re commonly told not to touch or eat mushrooms as children for fear they may be poisonous. While eating unidentified organisms is certainly inadvisable, overcaution may lead to missed opportunities in investigative youthful minds. Perpetuating this culture of ignorance is the all-but-complete lack of mycological education in our country. Fungi are widespread, marvelous, and critical to our planet, yet high schools barely touch them and only a handful of American colleges offer undergraduate degrees in mycology (usually focused on their role as pathogens).

In an effort to smash this unfounded fear of fungi, the Rainbow League for Social Justice is hosting a mushroom cultivation workshop on Thursday, November 3rd, at 5 p.m. in the Campus Center. Everyone will be able to make and take home their own oyster mushroom kit, while learning firsthand about the mushroom life cycle. This workshop will build food resiliency while spreading knowledge of the often overlooked, and tremendously under-thanked queendom fungi.

–Juniper White, President of the Rainbow League