MCG Mtng: Dr. Cornelia Cho: Mushrooms: Innovative Applications and Future Possibilities

About this event

Mushrooms: Innovative Applications and Future Possibilities

Fungi are reshaping how we build, farm, clean up, and throw things away. Long overlooked, this kingdom of life is now at the center of exciting work in sustainable design and environmental restoration. Quite a few of the innovators behind this work have presented to our club over the years. This talk brings all of their work together in one place, along with what’s happened since.

It explores the real-world innovations already underway. Mycelium, the threadlike root network of a fungus, is being grown into all sorts of materials. It’s replacing bacon and other meat products, offering biodegradable alternatives to Styrofoam, leather, plastics, fiberglass, and chemical dyes, and even forming high-tensile-strength building panels that lock carbon away instead of releasing it. Businesses are using fungi to break down disposable diapers, one of the most stubborn items in our landfills, and to recycle construction waste into usable material.

We’ll also go underground to see how fungal networks bind soil and restore fertility to depleted land, helping rebuild disappearing topsoil. We’ll look at how fungi can detoxify contaminated brownfields, too.

Throughout, we’ll separate what’s ready now from what’s still on the horizon. Whether you’re a gardener, a builder, a remediator, or simply curious, you’ll never look at a mushroom the same way again.

Cornelia Cho, M.D., is a retired physician and longtime student of the natural world. Her fascination took root early: her Korean heritage brought a childhood of fermented, probiotic-rich foods and foraging for wild edibles. She joined the Mushroom Club of Georgia in 2007, has served as its president since 2009, and sits on the North American Mycological Association’s Medicinal Mushroom Committee.

A frequent keynote speaker, Cornelia speaks nationally on fungi and other topics, pairing a physician’s scientific grounding with an explorer’s curiosity. Her talks look at what fungi are already doing for medicine, food, and the planet, and what is still promise and hype.

Her love of growing things extends to permaculture, urban agriculture, and perennial edible vegetables, including an often-overlooked harvest: edible tree leaves. She is also a fiber artist who refashions clothing.