The success of Crowdfunding and its use with fungi

Oyster mycelium growing out on straw

I have recently been apart of several successful indiegogo campaigns and watched several other friends successful raise funds to start businesses or bring ideas into fruition. I have been inspiried to be apart of and watch people’s dreams become reality with the generosity of countless people coming together. It greatly reminds me of the mycelial network which draws nutrients from many different places in order for the fungi to survive, thrive and grow. When you inoculate a substrate with a bottle of grain each piece of grain becomes an infection point for the massive substrate. With the growth of these inoculation points the substrate, 10 times the mass of the initial inoculum, can be totally infected within two weeks. Likewise I see these campaigns starting with a small amount of inoculation points but in the course of weeks a massive amount of money and support is raised.

On the mycological front the folks at Radical Mycology just successful raised about $20,000 to get a new book published this coming summer. I was excited to be a part of this crowd funding campaign and will be hosting a 2 day cultivation workshop with them late summer or early fall. This workshop will enhance the ability of our community in the pioneer valley to grow mushrooms and utilize fungi. The exact topics of the workshop are still being laid out so if you have a particular interest let us at Fungi Ally know. We will keep everyone informed about the details of the workshop when it comes closer!

Fruiting of Ganoderma tsugae, Reishi, out of a Hemlock in June

On Radical Mycology’s website they recently posted an article about Jakie Shay who successfully raised funds to study a tropical fungus in madagascar. The field of mycology which has many areas of new exploration including species discovery, cultivation, remediation, medicinal usage and recycling systems can take advantage of this crowd funding system. These new fields are open to exploration by “amatuer” mycologists and people willing to ally with the fungi to find solutions to present day issues. It is inspiring to see these ideas develop on the grassroots level, each project building on the last and inspiring the next. Like the mycelium of fungi these projects act as inoculation points spreading rapidly through the people and when the conditions are right massive fruitings will occur expressing the growth found at the grassroots level.