Soil is life. Without it, we cannot sustain ourselves on Earth. We are losing it, poisoning it, chopping it up with tilling, and with it, depleting the fungi which are integral to it, an intricate system, a web, that connects the plants, micro-organisms, digests carbon dioxide, and so much more. In this re-release of Episode 13, we learn about the world of fungi with one of Chile’s foremost experts, Guiliana Furci, to understand this area of the plant kingdom and how it touches every corner of our lives.
Giuliana is the director of Fundación Fungi and one of the most notable promoters of the Fungi Kingdom. Her dedication to fungi has helped make Chile the first country in the world to include the Fungi Kingdom in its General Environmental Law, which is essential for the study, protection and recognition of a species. Giuliana and I discuss the importance of fungi, its staggering diversity, and how it naturally seeks harmony to work with ecosystems.
I also share how the newly released documentary Common Ground, tied together this conversation around regenerative farms and the soil, the future of our ecosystems, and climate change in a way no other film has.
In this episode we talk about:
• How Giuliana was “chosen” by the world of fungi
• The “3F’s” & basics of the Fungi Kingdom & the role fungi plays in sustaining life
• The development of Chilean mycology and the uniqueness of Chilean fungi. The lonely road that was studying
Chilean fungi at first and why Chile is classified as a “mycro-phobic” country despite being a fungi hotspot!
• How co-evolution with fungi have led to fungi with medicinal properties
• The process of looking for fungi for particular purposes – medicinal, pesticides, — and how their co-evolution with animals have led to groundbreaking discoveries
• The Fungi Foundation
• Why everyone should see the newly-released documentary ‘Common Ground’, currently in theaters (as of March 2024)
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