Oral Paper

         Ethnobotany

The Cultural Importance of Mushrooms and Foraged Foods

Presenting Author
Amy Wrobleski
Description
There is a long tradition of hunting for mushrooms in the mid-Atlantic of the United States. Despite this importance very little research has been carried out on mushroom hunters in the mid-Atlantic. There has been no such examination of the demographics, sustainability practices, or economic importance of wild mushrooms in the northeast or mid Atlantic, despite anecdotal evidence that interest in mushrooms in the region has been on the rise, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.  In collaboration with mushroom hunting communities in the region, this project seeks to understand how people learn about mushrooms in the region and asks questions around which fungi are culturally and economically important and why. A survey was developed and has been distributed on a rolling basis since spring 2022; to date, more than one thousand mushroom hunters have completed the survey.  Respondents report growing interest in mushroom hunting since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Respondents self-reported the year they first began to hunt for mushrooms. From 2020 to the present there was a significant spike in new mushroom hunters compared to previous years, with 35% of respondents learning to hunt for mushrooms since the beginning of 2020. Mushroom hunters, as a group, are overall younger, with a majority of respondents being between 25 and 40 years of age. Most respondents identified as women (58%) and were white (86%). Despite many respondents expressing concerns about commercial harvesting, only 3% of respondents reported selling mushrooms, and most respondents had no interest in selling mushrooms now or in the future (78%). Wild mushrooms were reported to be used for food as well as medicine and are an integrative part of culture and identity within the region. A spike in mushroom hunting interest could have major implications for if and how mushroom hunting is regulated in the region, something that many community members expressed concerns about. This rise in interest in mushroom hunting leads to exciting potential areas for outreach programs such as extension services, community-based groups, and mushroom harvesting and cultivation businesses, as well as potential avenues for community science collaboration in the future.