Doug Bierend - In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms

In Search of Mycotopia is for mycophiles everywhere, from old hands to young enthusiasts, profiling in lively prose the kooky, brilliant, and inspiring folks who are changing the way we understand fungi, nature, and ourselves.

EUGENIA BONE, author of Mycophilia and Microbia

In Search of Mycotopia is as wondrous and hopeful as its awe-inspiring subject. Doug Bierend deftly extends the mycelial threads of his curiosity into the many communities that congregate around fungi, from academic researchers to hipster entrepreneurs to Indigenous groups engaged in cultural mycoremediation. The resultant book is a masterpiece of intersectional fungal anthropology that will send you running for the mushroom stand at your nearest farmers marketand may even inspire you to venture forth on some forest forays yourself.

BEN GOLDFARB, author of Eager

Fungi are natures alchemists, the circulatory and nervous system of the forest ecosystem, and the providers of nutrition, healing, remediation, and spiritual awakening. In this compelling book, Doug Bierend awakens the myco-nerd in each of us, uplifts the stories of queer, Black, and young citizen scientists, and challenges us to ameliorate our fungal illiteracy. Bierend convinces us that the healing of our planet requires that we remember the fringe and oft-forgotten fungal kingdom.

LEAH PENNIMAN, cofounder of Soul Fire Farm, author of Farming While Black

What if our world were connected by unseen strands, by dynamic webs of life that maintain nature as we know it, a largely hidden substrate capable of healing us, feeding us, teaching us, churning death into life, sustaining the soil, plants, and animals? Well, it is, actually. Amiable, brilliant, and endlessly curious, Doug Bierend is the perfect guide to both the marvelous realm of fungi and to the radical human subcultures that have sprung up to celebrate itcitizen mycologists, cultivators, and activists from the Ecuadorian Amazon to the Pacific Northwest. In Search of Mycotopia is a fascinating, humble, and hopeful book, a glimpse at a cosmos of which we are not the center; in which everything is interconnected, and life humbly, quietly persists.

BEN EHRENREICH, author of Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time

Theres a fungus among us, and its all good. As Doug Bierends engaging journey through mycoculture reveals, its time to make like a mushroom, join the club, and grow a distributed, curious, and sustainably prosperous world togetherfrom the bottom up.

DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, host and author of Team Human

Doug Bierends book is a vivid trip past the flora and fauna of this world and into the reigning kingdom of Fungi. The most mind-altering forays take readers far beyond psychedelic shroomer culture, which turns out to be one in a collection of subversive subcultures of enthusiasts, scientists, and citizen scientists from all walks of life. Written by a playful and candid storyteller, In Search of Mycotopia vindicates the mushroom, the literal and symbolic fabric that tightly binds together all life.

CAREN COOPER, author of Citizen Science

In Search of Mycotopia is a must-read! Leaving no stone unturned, Bierend covers everything from cultivation to psychedelic studies, providing insight into how critical fungi are toward healing the planet and its inhabitants, and ultimately encouraging readers to become a part of the community. Nothing is impossible if you bring mushrooms into your life, and reading this book is a great way to begin your journey.

TRADD COTTER, author of Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

With a fresh and welcoming voice, Doug Bierend takes us on a journey through the far-reaching branches of the modern mycocultural movement. As his search for mycological knowledge expands across the pages, so do we also find ourselves enmeshed in the underground world of citizen scientists, DIY mushroom growers, and landscape healers. Bierend presents voices that are rarely heard elsewhere, and rarer still is his holistic approach to such a diverse and dynamic community. This book offers a rich glimpse into a rapidly growing culture, as well as inspiring insights on the many ways that you can get involved in the future of fungi. A much-needed compass for the ever-evolving landscape of mycology, and a vivid portrait of fungi and the humans who work with them, In Search of Mycotopia is a must-read for anyone wanting to join in the fungi fun.

PETER MCCOY, author of Radical Mycology

In Search of Mycotopia

Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms

Doug Bierend

Chelsea Green Publishing

White River Junction, Vermont

London, UK

Copyright 2021 by Doug Bierend.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Alexander Bullett

Editor: Michael Metivier

Copy Editor: Eliani Torres

Proofreader: Diane Durrett

Indexer: Shana Milkie

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Page Layout: Abrah Griggs

Printed in Canada.

First printing February 2021.

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Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. In Search of Mycotopia was printed on paper supplied by Marquis that is made of recycled materials and other controlled sources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bierend, Doug, author.

Title: In search of mycotopia : citizen science, fungi fanatics, and the untapped potential of mushrooms / Doug Bierend.

Description: White River Junction, Vermont : Chelsea Green Publishing, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020047987 (print) | LCCN 2020047988 (ebook) | ISBN 9781603589796 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781603589802 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Mycology. | Mushrooms. | Fungi.

Classification: LCC QK603 .B453 2021 (print) | LCC QK603 (ebook) | DDC 579.5dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047987

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047988

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, Vermont USA

Somerset House

London, UK

www.chelseagreen.com

For Vera

If we do not begin to expand our concept of revolution, nature will make the revolution despite us.

TAWANA PETTY

We met Olga Tzogas in front of a featureless warehouse on the southern fringes of Rochester, New York. For three years, the austere building had served as the home of her business, Smugtown Mushrooms, and a haven for her extended community of countercultural misfits. But we were visiting at a complicated moment. In a sudden and grim turn of events a couple of months prior, the landlord had taken their own life. Shocking news, one consequence of which was that the companys fate lay in the hands of a pair of young investors with designs on erecting a hip beer garden in its place.

These dudes are developing the area and they dont want to renew our lease, so we have to go, and that sucks, said Tzogas, leading my friend Alanna and me into the building. Friendly but flustered in an afternoon rush of activity, Tzogas, a daughter of Greek immigrants and prime specimen of the northeastern anarchomycologist, spoke with equal parts twang and lilt, wearing a tie-dyed tank top, cat-eye spectacles, and the fading tattoo of a forest floors worth of fungi on her forearm. When she was growing up, Tzogass family owned a restaurant in Rochester, making for deep and complicated feelings toward the former Kodak boomtown as investor-driven development gradually rendered the local landscape ever less recognizable.