Humans have eaten wild mushrooms since we first emerged over 200,000 years ago. Why then, do fungi play a minor role in our modern food systems compared with plants and animals? Could the adoption of fungally-minded foodsystems lead to more sustainable agricultural systems? How could modern advances in cell and molecular biology combat ecological degradation and secure a healthy future for mankind? My name is Charlie Bruder and I am an aspiring mycologist, microbiologist and farmer who is interested in helping answer these questions

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The current world population is over 8 billion humans, and feeding this many people is no easy task. Regardless of if you believe in large scale, corporate agriculture, or small scale communal farming, it is scientifically evident that all modern agricultural systems need to adapt and develop better practices and technologies in the face of both a growing population, as well as a rapidly changing climate. Humans have domesticated more than 1000 species of plants, 40 species of animals, yet very few fungi have been cultivated for food. Even when fungi have been cultivated, they have not been bred and selected to the same degree to which plants and animals have been. Have we simply overlooked the use of fungi as valuable food?

 

By studying and practicing both agriculture and microbiology, I hope to make advances in developing fungal strains that can efficiently produce food using mushrooms native to the Pacific Northwest, USA. Could we grow and utilize fungi as food on a small scale, meeting our needs as well as those of the Earth? Though the term is often co-opted to mean something entirely different, my training in permaculture design has taught me to be critical of all foodsystems, and attempt to design ways of growing food which work with nature, rather than against it.

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I currently work in the Biodeterioration Lab at Oregon State University, where I help maintain one of the largest fungal culture collections in the PNW. As a student, my current research interests include studying the effect of polyploidization on fungi, fungal evolution and cell biology, microbial symbioses and quorum sensing. I am also highly invested in ethnomycology, and studying the anthropology of domestication.