L.A. Officials Exhibiting Extreme Mycophobia?
Friday, June 10, 2005 15:03
Have you noticed anything odd going on with wild mushrooms at L.A.’s 72 area farmer’s markets this spring?
Mushroom vendors and regular customers are up in arms because in March the Los Angeles Department of Health imposed a virtual ban against all unregulated wild mushroom sales in our area.
Local mycologyists maintain that the area’s long-lived free market approach to wild mushrooms has served the county well, as detailed in a story, by Charles Molineaux, in the American Council on Science and Health.
However officials believe the free market approach is a problem waiting to happen. “There has to be some oversight, from the boat to the plate, or from the farm to the plate,” says the county’s Environmental Ombudsman Terrance Powell (in what comes across as a pretty canned response from a guy who favors cultivated mushrooms).
So, how are L.A.’s mushroom enthusiasts better served four months after the health department’s intervention? “The difference now is that sellers end up paying about 20% more for mushrooms and the merchandise is typically about four days less fresh…” Check out the whole story.
Photo Originally uploaded by tonx.