In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Forager's Bane

Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by andlier on Sunday March 20, 2016 @06:57PM (#11325109)

Here in Norway we had this publicly funded mushroom control staff located strategically near the forest to allow people to get their mushroom-forage checked by an expert. They would literally go through all the mushrooms in your basket and throw out any mushrooms they couldn't positively identify as edible. Unfortunately the money "ran" out. I guess we'll take the hit as an increased spending on public healthcare instead. http://www.newsinenglish.no/2015/08/10/money-ran-out-for-mus... edit: here's a better link with pictures, but in norwegian: http://www.nrk.no/norge/savner-stotte-til-soppkontroll-1.119...

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Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by sheepdestroyer on Monday March 21, 2016 @09:15AM (#11327822)

Here in France, part of the mandatory curriculum to be a pharmacist (druggist) is to learn about mushrooms. Therefore they have a duty to identify -for no charge- the mushrooms you bring them. You do not have to be a customer. And I really mean every pharmacy. They all have a huge mushroom encyclopaedia to make sure in case of doubt.

I used to bring psilocybes to my local pharmacy when I started to search for them and was not quite sure yet what they exactly look like. I got bad looks but was never sent away without safe information.

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Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by Alex3917 on Sunday March 20, 2016 @07:56PM (#11325310)

Seems like a waste of money. If people want to learn the edible species they can just join their local mushroom club like in the US.

I can see paying someone to be there a couple hours a week, but as a full time job that seems ridiculous.

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Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by vinay427 on Sunday March 20, 2016 @08:32PM (#11325437)

Perhaps training those who are already stationed (forest/park rangers, etc.) would be a more efficient path. I think the point of accessible trained staff as opposed to a mushroom club is to target those who would otherwise not take the effort to investigate what they gathered, and end up consuming harmful species.

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Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by Alex3917 on Sunday March 20, 2016 @10:21PM (#11325793)

Call me cynical, but stopping someone from eating some random unidentified plants/mushrooms seems like a net harm to humanity.

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Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by ryandvm on Monday March 21, 2016 @12:09AM (#11326188)

You're cynical.

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Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by hammock on Sunday March 20, 2016 @11:10PM (#11325966)

You can give a man a fish, or you can teach a man to fish.

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Re:In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Fora... by Camillo on Monday March 21, 2016 @12:53AM (#11326305)

Or you can tax a third man to pay for a second man to catch fish for the first man.

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