Symposiums
The first
shiitake mushroom symposium was held in Huntsville, Alabama in October
1993. Alabama A&M University and Cooperative Extension, the Resource
Conservation and Development Council/Soil Conservation Service, Shiitake
Producers of Alabama, Southern Rural Development Center, and USDA
supported the efforts of this symposium. In 1997, a second Symposium was
held, providing potential and current growers with more advanced
production information. In 2006, the Functional Foods: The New Medicine
Conference was held to present information to consumers about the health
benefits of mushrooms and other fruits and vegetables.
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The presentations
at the 1993 Symposium included:
- Overview of shiitake production methods
- Cultivation of shiitake and other exotic mushrooms in
Taiwan
- How
to get excellent spawn run
- Extending the growing season and year-round production of
shiitake on natural logs
- Effects of shiitake mushroom strains and wood species on the
yield of shiitake mushrooms
- production of shiitake mushrooms in Florida
- Growing a grass roots industry based on shiitake
- The
market for American dried shiitake mushrooms
- Rapid
germination of shiitake mushroom propagules in artificial culture
media
- Developing and marketing "Meal-in-a-Bag" shiitake products for
small shiitake growers
- Woodland mushroom production as sustainable agriculture: a
forester's perspective
- Medicinal benefits of the shiitake mushroom
- Profit potential from growing shiitake
- From
the Hills of the Ozarks to the Bistros of St. Louis
- Shiitake facilities in Florida—logs and sawdust
- Financial comparison of log and sawdust grown shiitake
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The 1997
Symposium included the following presentations:
- Ecological guides to the cultivation of edible mushrooms
- Fruiting strategies and facilities for sawdust-based shiitake
production
- A
bio-rational approach to indoor mushroom cultivation
- Using
biotechnology to enhance shiitake production
- Genetic engineering of edible fungi
- Gaining publicity through the PRESS
- Advertising on TV—Is it feasible? Is it worth it?
- Small
shiitake farm secrets: utilizing spent sawdust blocks as a base for a
marketable soil additive
- Shiitake production and marketing in Florida
- Accessing funding and resources for shiitake mushroom
production
- Developing an association
- Shiitake mushrooms in Mississippi
- Shiitake production relative to time between inoculation and
first fruiting and time between fruitings
- Growing shiitake mushroom on hardwood sawdust
- Observed effects of row coverings on temperature, humidity and
fruit body moisture content
- Does
scoring or girdling trees prior to felling increase shiitake mushroom
production on logs from treated trees
- Brown
center rot of shiitake mushrooms
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 |
 Functional foods are
foods or food substances designed to lower the risk or delay the onset of
certain diseases. The promotion of functional fruits, vegetables, and
mushrooms is already occurring in some markets. In fact, functional food
sales now exceed $10 billion a year in the United 
States and $47 billion
worldwide, with an expected annual growth rate of eight to ten percent
over the next five years.
The 2006 Urban Rural
Interface Conference was a great opportunity for producers and consumers
to learn more about which fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms provide major
benefits to your health, as well as new ways to market these
products.
If you missed coming
to the conference you can order the notebook or video. Speakers
included: Sally Norton on Greens or Grains?: Exploring
Connections Between Animal Feeds, Human Nutrition and Human
Health and Farm or Pharma?: Whole Food Diets for Health and Healing; Joel Slaton on How Medicinal Mushrooms Work: A contemporary
Perspective; Martha Verghese on Anticancer Potential of Selected
Foods; Ron Prior on Antioxidants, Free Radicals, and
Health: Translating the Science into Dietary Recommendations; and Cathy Sabota on Getting the Most of the Medicine in Mushrooms.
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