MOST of us would prefer to eat, rather than be eaten by, our food. That's the frank admission of Jae Rhim Lee, developer of a new mushroom burial suit that consumes dead bodies, leaving clean compost.
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Lee and co-designer Mike Ma have spent the past six years developing the suit, which uses mushrooms to consume the body after burial.
It is expected to be on the market in the United States as early as April.
The concept was aimed at being a more environmentally aware way of dealing with bodies.
Traditional methods either inject the body with toxic solvents to postpone decay (burial) or release soot, carbon monoxide and trace elements into the atmosphere.
US estimates are that the amount of carbon dioxide released each year as a result of cremations is equal to the emissions of 41,040 cars.
The human body is also full of toxic pollutants including pesticides, preservatives and heavy metals like mercury and lead, which can cause problems if they leach into soil or groundwater.
Lee's Infinity Burial Suit is designed to "cleanse the body of toxins before returning it to nature".
During development the researcher tested various mushroom varieties by feeding them her own hair, skin and nails, and selectively breeding the ones that best consumed them.
She then designed a body suit with thread infused with the mushroom spores.
"I was inspired by the idea that mushrooms are the master decomposers of Earth and thereby the interface organisms between life and death," she said.
"As I watch the mushrooms grow and digest the body I imagine the infinity mushroom as a symbol of a new way of thinking about death and the relationship between my body and the environment."
The first man to use the suit will be Dennis White, 63, who has the rare neurological disease primary progressive aphasia.
"I never thought about death until I was diagnosed, and I want to go out with a bang, like I've lived most of my life," he said.
"What a long, strange trip it's been."
The company already has a waiting list of several hundred for the suits, which will retail at about US$999.
An infinity pod for burying pets is expected to be released in March.
