The next Conversa Improvável (Improbable Talk) will discuss the topic of mushrooms from “farm to fork”. The session takes place on October 31, from 12:00 to 13:00, at the UC Exploratório - Ciência Viva Coimbra (Rotunda das Lages, Parque Verde do Mondego, 3041-901 Coimbra).
Begining with the menu mushrooms: production, consumption, awareness, preservation, the event features the participation of the owner of Growingdetails, Rute Prata, a producer of mushrooms and other horticultural crops, which she distributes in the city and surrounding areas; the forest resources engineer Ricardo Torres, with extensive experience in forest management planning and trainer in the field of mycology; and the kindergarten teacher at the Kindergarten of the Serviços de Ação Social da Universidade de Coimbra (JI SASUC), Raquel Maricato, with vast collaboration in research and scientific dissemination projects and in attending the natural curiosity of children.
Mushrooms correspond to the fruiting body of certain groups of fungi in a huge kingdom known as Fungi or Funga. We notice them when it rains, however fungi are everywhere and are relevant to mantain the ecosystems balance. The tendency of having cultivated mushrooms on the market is still recent. We do not have the culture of growing mushrooms like the Asian countries. And this influences the national production of mushrooms and substrates. Mushrooms are superfoods and their cultivation can contribute to healthier and more sustainable food systems, either by valuing the agricultural and forestry waste, either by promoting production closer to nature's cycles. So what's missing? Could it be that kowing about fungi from youth will always deliver?
The talk will be moderated by Anabela Marisa Azul, a researcher at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra, an expert in several topics related to fungi, and interdisciplinary studies in metabolism, and it illustrated live by the comic artist Rui Tavares. The cultural moment involves a showcooking of mushrooms. The event is in Portuguese, open to the whole community and the admission is free.
The Conversas Improváveis are an initiative of the communication action group of the Metabolism, Aging and Disease (MAD) research line of the Center for Innovation in Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CiBB) of the University of Coimbra, with the aim of fostering science and health literacy via informal discussions and approaching topics from various perspectives, raising awareness of several diseases, and encouraging early and informed actions and decisions, ultimately contributing to a healthier society. Each session takes place in a different location at iconic spaces of the University of Coimbra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
