Scott Ford, a beef farmer from near Nimbin, has sent out a distress signal. Giorgio warns would-be foragers for magic mushrooms on his property, though. Ford focuses on the increasing army of psychedelic mushroom gatherers plundering his fields. He wants to drive home the importance of farm biosecurity and the dangers posed by trespass.
Tammie Ford often finds people looking for Psilocybe cubensis, aka magic mushrooms or gold tops, trespassing on her property. Their presence on an airfield has sparked issues related to safety and biosecurity. This allows him to put herbicides to regular use in order to consolidate his nutgrass battles. This noxious weed poses a serious threat to cattle and possibly humans.
Biosecurity Concerns
A colorful, oversized biosecurity caution sign juts from Ford’s barbed-wire-topped roadside fence, just waiting for the photo op. It serves to remind would-be foragers that trespassing uninvited on his farm could lead to fatal outcomes. Ford argues that most Americans are not familiar with what farm biosecurity involves.
“I find people just wandering around the property, whole families and their dogs walking through,” said Ford. To make his point, he described a scenario in which his property is overrun by trespassers trampling down fences in their search for mushrooms.
Ford bravely faced down a mob of dangerous, armed […] They testified they had been directed to his land in pursuit of psilocybe mushrooms. “I was told to come out here, this is the spot to find magic mushrooms,” one of the individuals reportedly said.
The Risks of Herbicide Use
Ford’s worries go beyond trespassing. They include the human health impact of applying herbicides. He further clarified that every chemical has a period after application in which it is considered safe. For herbicides like the one he uses, cattle should not be in the treated paddock for at least a month.
“All chemicals have a safe period after they are applied, this one in particular, it’s one month that the cattle shouldn’t be in the paddock after it’s been sprayed,” Ford stated. He expressed uncertainty about the potential toxicity effects of the chemical on humans who might ingest mushrooms from treated areas.
I don’t know what the toxicity effects of the chemical would be on someone ingesting it, but if my cattle can’t eat the grass for a month, I am sure it’s not going to be healthy for a human, he added.
A Call for Respect
Ford encourages foragers and the general public to be considerate of landowners and their properties. Trespassing makes big complications for him as a farmer. On top of that, he, in his own words, deals with the unique challenge of escaped cattle.
“Everyone seems to think that farmland is free access. Quite often I go down and find fences separated and gates down,” he remarked.
Ford is hoping to save lives by increasing awareness of the dangers of mushroom foraging. They argue strongly against going beyond the confines of the farm. I just want people to stop demonizing the landowners. We’re slogging pretty damn hard to just keep the farm and have enough stress and bad vibes fighting footloose cattle. We should not be put in a position of concern over persons crossing illegally and ingesting poison on our property.
Experts like Wu want to raise the alarm about the dangers of mushroom foraging. Jonathan Brett, a mycologist at the University of Queensland, said there are dozens of particularly toxic magic mushroom look-alikes found across Australia. “If you don’t know what you’re looking for there are significant public health risks around mushroom toxicity,” he warned.
Brett stressed the importance of realizing how vastly different mushrooms can appear at different stages of their life cycle. This variation especially heightens the danger of misidentification. “The problem with mushrooms is there is a huge diversity of species and a huge diversity in how they look at different stages of their life cycle,” he added.
