Why should the hempsters and mycophiles join forces? Symbiosis….
A conversation regarding the potential in to combine industrial hemp and mycological properties with an eye to product R&D, product development, economic development and even cost effective environmental remediation.
Both components have similar product capabilities (sugars, xylitol, fiber, lignin, medicines, plastics, cosmetics, etc…) and have a high probability of synergistic properties in processed components, agricultural products, brownfield cleanup and in business applications.
Investors are looking for the next big product to launch, and make a fair profit in the process. In today’s climate of cultural shifting to better business practices even Wall Street and Hi-Tech investors are opting for cleaner and more modest ROI on products and services that can boast “green” (and mean it), B Corps qualified or just offer honest old-fashioned good business practices – with no gender harassment stains on their products.
The combination of hemp and mushrooms may be just that next big – and sustaining - for investors, government agencies, research labs, and private business. This is a unique opportunity to examine the pros and cons of consciously creating plans to serve the entire supply chain with two products easily integrated into the Colorado manufacturing line-up.
We will examine and discuss the pros and cons of why serious mushroom people should start collaborating with serious hemp processors / researchers. What better place to start the conversation than in Telluride?
Fungi and Agricultural Hemp
Combined Product Opportunities
Common saprophytic fungi include brown rots such as Laetiporus and Phaeolus, white rots such as Pleurotus and Trametes, and litter decomposers such as Agaricus and Agrocybe. These fungi have one important fact in common. They decompose dead plants, the bulk of which is plant cell wall material. Cellulose and lignin make up plant cell walls, and are the two most abundant organic compounds on earth. Cellulose is a relatively simple polysaccharide, and even though very few animals have the enzymes to digest it, saprophytic fungi do, and have been using cellulose as an abundant food source for hundreds of millions of years. Lignin presents an entirely different set of problems for decomposers. It is a complex polyphenolic compound, having evolved in part precisely to protect plant cells from the ravages of fungal and insect attack. The complex mechanisms and enzymes employed by lignin-digesting fungi are finally beginning to be elucidated, and they are revealing some intriguing connections. Could fungal bioluminescence be tied to the process of lignin decomposition by white rot fungi? Could the synthesis of polyphenolic compounds of plants, animals and fungi be related to their protective, toxic, and/or medicinal potentials?
The Mycologist: There is a Bustle in the Hedgerow
Nicholas Money will read excerpts from The Diary of Bartholomew Leach, Professor of Natural Philosophy, the mushroom expert who discovered the theory of Creation by Natural Perfection in the 1850s, but discovered, to his great disappointment, that he had been trumped by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
Book website: http://the-mycologist.com/
Don Lattin is an award-winning journalist and a reporter covering a wide range of religious figures and movements in the United States. He has written several books. Lattin’s work has appeared in many U.S. magazines and newspapers. He has also worked as a consultant and commentator for several television programs. Lattin teaches religion writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. Especially notable of his previous books is The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America traces the efforts of four notable players who brought LSD to the attention of the world: Leary, Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass), Smith, and Weil. Lattin will be coming to Telluride to discuss his new book Changing Our Minds -- Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy, which features quite a bit about the new wave of FDA-approved psilocybin research. He also plans to “share some stories of my own explorations in the underground mushroom therapy world, and with other sacred plant medicines.”
Extraradical mycelium occurs once a mycorrhizal web is established. The mycelium reaches out, into the unknown, in search for nutrients or other partners with hopes of spreading the myceliul web through not yet explored parts of the world. This open discussion will highlight some of the movers and shakers of the mycorevolution who are creating, interconnecting, and inspiring a better world. We will share our current projects and opportunities with the focus of empowering each other to take next steps with our passions through providing information and resources. We will also discus our experiences with introducing, influencing, and infecting a mycophobic community with fungi.
The presentation will provide a working hypotheses of the psychological mechanisms of action underlying psilocybin’s therapeutic effects, with an emphasis on the emotion known as awe.
Despite their abundant peculiarities, mushrooms behave according to the same rules that govern human existence. This means that a study of the fungi can help us understand how we work and why we do so. The claim that mycological inquiry can reveal why we exist may be surprising for people who think that science does not answer the why things happen sort of questions. This is illogical, however, given widespread confidence in the claim that we know why mushrooms exist. In this presentation, Nicholas shares a combination of mycological and philosophical stories to reveal what ten beautiful mushrooms can tell us about our own being. Life will never seem the same.
Little Saints screening; this movie features the Mazatec mushroom tradition and the Producer’s direct experience with the culture. Filmmaker, Oliver Quintanilla, has had a near 20-year connection with a legitimate curandera in Mexico, Natalia Martínez. She does not advertise; his initial meeting with her was filled with synchronistic magic, beginning two weeks before they met. After many years, filled with many personal visits for healing, and his continuous insistence, she allowed him to film five mushroom healing ceremonies, four with individuals and one with a couple. With the support of National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project, family, friends, associates and even some strangers he produced and directed the documentary film Little Saints, which is the name given to the psilocybe mushrooms by the Mazatec people. The film is reverent; it does not sensationalize; there are no ‘trippy’ graphics or ‘trippy’ music. Weaving in several interviews with individuals in the fields of anthropology, ethnography, entheogens and theology. It’s a serious subject and deserving of respect; this film is an objective documentary work on native healing rituals It does not ‘push’ anything, it documents and exalts. Highly recommended for anyone with an active interest in these topics and for anyone with serious curiosity about them, interested in learning.
There will be a discussion beforehand and a chance to ask questions.
Fifty years have passed since the first ESPD symposium was held in San Francisco in 1967. That seminal conference was intended to be the first in a regular series, but followup symposia were never held due to changing political and cultural circumstances. The symposia were not staged, but work in ethnopharmacology continued, and there have been significant discoveries made in the last 50 years. This lecture will discuss some of the more significant ones, and will speculate as to the future of psycho-ethnopoharmacology in the coming decades.
