Eco-Friendly Mushroom Burial Suits

Modern burials often involve procedures including embalming bodies with chemicals like formaldehyde and expensive burial vaults, all at aiming to prevent decomposition. However, decomposition is nature's way of dealing with death. So, to counter this, there has been a green burial revolution where people are returned to earth the way our ancestors used to - as naturally as possible.

Recently, artist Jae Rhim Lee, created a new mushroom burial suit that is comprised of mushroom spores to help the natural decomposition process, since she believes traditional green burials don't go far enough. Lee's hope is that this will become a new part of burial culture to reverse some of the more commercialized aspects associated with traditional burial.

But - does natural burial really need the extra help from the mushrooms pores - or can we just let Earth and its microbes do the job it has been doing for eons?

Key Takeaways:

• The green burial movement is a positive departure from the traditional polluting, industrialized burial.
• The mushroom burial suit can help the body decompose faster, which Lee says will reduce the environmental impact of the toxins and heavy metals in our bodies.
• But, researchers have found that the natural process of decomposition includes our own natural bacteria, followed by insects, worms - and fungi. This process is very efficient towards decomposing the body - and its toxins and heavy metals.
• Lee will tell you that the mushroom burial suit will make the body decompose quicker - but is that really beneficial? The decomposition also needs to be timed to the ability of the surrounding plants to utilize the compost.
• Ultimately, do the research. If the mushroom burial suit means something to you - by all means, get it. But don't believe that you must replace the simplicity of natural burial with the complexity of add-ons like the burial suit.

To quote from the article:

"A tree trunk is in no hurry to decompose, so does it matter whether body decomposition is completed in one, five or 10 years? Is nature in a hurry?."

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