Volume 11, Part 1, February 1997

TOWARDS A NATIONAL POLICY ON THE COMMERCIALCOLLECTING OF FUNGI

The development of commercial collecting ofwild mushrooms for profit is becoming a problemin Britain as elsewhere and an article in thisissue (pl0) illustrates the scale of such activity inthe USA. There is at present no national policy(as we have for flowering plants) but the BritishMycological Society is currently reviewing itsattitude to the thorny question. The following ispart of a report presented to the Decembermeeting of BMS Council by the ConservationSpecial Interest Committee.

The BMS set out its policy on commercial col-lecting of macrofungi as part of its policy on con-servation, published in the Mycologist 4 (1990).It was simply stated: "The Society does not con-done the commercial collection of wild mush-rooms, particularly as there is uncertainty as toeffects of such large-scale collection on fungalpopulations".

Public concern has become more vociferousover the past two to three years and this paperre-examines the issue to determine whether thepolicy needs to be amended.

The rising demand for wild mushrooms

Commercial collecting of edible wild fungi hasundoubtedly expanded rapidly in Britain since1990. This direct result of the expansion andinternationalisation of the restaurant businesswhich has led to substantial increases indemands for exotic and wild ingredients. Everychef that aspires to a Michelin star or Mark of 4or 5 in The Good Food Guide is bound to feature'wild mushrooms' in some guise on his or hermenu. This has resulted in a number of notablechanges in collecting methods.

The traditional trade in edible mushroomsinvolved local collecting and sale through localmarkets in most of Europe with some then pass-ing through wholesale vegetable markets to reachspecialist grocers and restaurateurs in Britain.As demand has risen, so have prices; the ediblespecies are now commanding £40 - £60 a kiloand delicacies such as Amanita caesarea cancommand well over £100 per kilo. The strength-ening market has led to the advent of a smallnumber of highly organised collectors in Britainwho collect for sale to restaurants and for theLondon and international markets. Some chefsalso employ collectors, and many will buy fromamateurs who offer good specimens for sale.Many of the collectors are poor field mycologistsand there are examples of indiscriminate collect-

ing, that is the clearing of all the fungi from anarea. The trade is highly international: Turkishmorels are now regularly on sale in London andMadrid, whilst Scottish chanterelles can bebought in Milan and Paris and there are evenIndian village co-operatives now supplying thetrade.

The trade and value

Because very little of the supply now passesthrough public markets in Britain, it is difficultto determine the size or value of the trade.Anecdotal evidence gleaned from the Pressreveals that one of the three companies tradingin wild mushrooms in Scotland is shipping 15,000kilos per annum. The turnover of a New Forestcompany trading in wild mushrooms is estimat-ed at £300,000 per annum.

The rise in commercial demand has run in par-allel with renewed interest in collecting fungi forfood which has resulted from a plethora of booksand television programmes: Richard Mabey's'Food for Free', Roger Phillips' 'Wild Food' andAntonio Carluccio's 'A Passion for Mushrooms'are noteworthy, as were Michael Jordan's andAntonio Carluccio's television programmes. Thenumber of mycologists attending Field StudiesCouncil fungus courses has increased.

There can be no doubt that the collecting offungi for sale and for the pot has risen dramati-cally in Britain in the last decade. The questionfor the BMS is: does it matter?

The perceived consequences

Many amateur mycologists in continentalEurope have reported declines in the quantitiesand ranges of the best edible species over thepast two decades. Because fungi are still sold inlocal markets in Europe, there is some quantita-tive evidence of the decline. The trend has beennoted in Britain too, but no quantification is pos-sible. The main causes are thought to have beenpollution, notably acid rain and nitrogen enrich-ment through deposition, and habitat loss, ratherthan commercial collecting.

Commercial collecting has been controlled bylicence and regulation in Switzerland, and partsof France and Italy for some years. This is part-ly to protect the collecting rights of local peoplein communally owned forests, and partly inresponse to a vague concern that collectingmight be deleterious to the viability of fungalpopulations.

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Volume 11, Part 1, February 1997

Commercial collecting has been in the newsagain recently in Britain, mostly in relation tothe New Forest. Attempts by the ForestryCommission to control commercial collectinghave been well publicised , notably as a result of anews item on BBC Radio 4 on 6 September. Anumber of landowners including the CrownEstates and the National Trust have begun tointroduce restrictions and it is therefore timelyfor the BMS to review its policy.

There are two other concerns related to com-mercial collecting. First, indiscriminate collect-ing can make scientific recording much moredifficult. Both the quantities and species rangeof collecting are unknown and recording on popu-lar collecting sites may therefore give a very dis-torted picture of fungal frequencies. Secondly,there are other organisms that rely heavily onfungal fruiting bodies as sources of food, but theeffects of commercial collecting on these popula-tions is not at present known.

Defining the problem

Increased collecting of fungi is giving rise to con-cern in five ways:

1. The effect on the long term survival of thefungus, and the indirect effect on the organ-isms further down the food chain, that is, thewildlife conservation issue.

2. The distortion of scientific records .

3. The effect on local people who had de factocollecting rights in public forests .

4. The effects on landowners, and particularlywoodland owners, wherever more determinedpickers are becoming a nuisance.

5. The aesthetic effect which results in manyamateur naturalists being unable to enjoy thesight of fungi in autumn woods.

The BMS might appear to be concerned withonly the first two of these, but the reactions oflocal people and landowners to mycologistsundertaking recording has become noticeablymore hostile, and many wildlife Trusts andNatural History Societies are now rightly con-cerned about the aesthetic effects. It is also ofconcern that the rising tide of debate is a littleunclear and unfocussed, and there is a role forthe BMS to take a lead in clarifying the issues .

Patrick LeonardThe Garden House, Huggets Lane, Eastbourne,

E. Sussex BN22 OLH

Editor's note: We intend to publish the conclu-sions of this review and the revision of the BMSpolicy on collecting as soon as possible. BMSmembers with evidenc e or comments tocontribute are urged to write to the author at theaddress above as soon as possible.

COOKERY CORNER

..

MONKFISH WITH CHANTERELLES*

Coda di rospo can gallinacci

A real pleasure for me is the combination of avery delicate and firm fish and a very delicatebut crunchy mushroom. Chanterelles are alsoloved for their colour, which lends to this simplymade dish a certain sophistication (and consider-ing how expensive these little mushrooms are tobuy, this is fully deserved). I suggest that youcook this dish when you find some chanterellesfor yourselves.

Serves4

50g/20z/4 tbsp butter1 small onion, finely chopped300g/100z chanterelles, cleaned weight

800g/1 lb 120z fillet of monkfish, cleaned weightsalt and pepperthe grated peel of 1 lemon2 or 3 leaves fresh sage1 small carton double (heavy) cream1 tbsp coarsely chopped parsley

Put the butter in a casserole and gently fry theonion until golden, add the chanterelles, the filletof monkfish , salt and pepper and cook on a lowheat for 15 minutes stirring from time to time.The fish should poach just in the water exudedfrom the mushrooms. Add the lemon peel, thesage and the cream and cook very gently foranother 5 minutes ; add the parsley and servestraight away.

* Taken with kind permission from 'A passion for mush-rooms' by Antonio Carluccio (1990) Pavilion Books Ltd .