[linuskendall]

Where I am from (Sweden) many, many people make mushroom picking a regular habit. However, most who do are aware of what mushrooms are safe, which ones to take extra care in identifying (definitely all white ones) and which ones to never pick. Wild mushrooms are perfectly safe as long as you have some knowledge about it. We were taught by parents and on school trips.

[eru]

Most poisonous mushrooms also don't taste good and make you throw up quickly. (Our bodies have that vomiting mechanism for exactly that reason.)

Of course, most doesn't mean all.

[klipt]

Provided you don't assume that knowledge that works in Sweden works anywhere else in the world.

[alkonaut]

It doesn't - which is why a lot of people get sick in Sweden every year and it's heavily skewed to people who aren't Swedish. I'm not sure if it's because they lack knowledge entirely, or because the knowledge they had didn't transfer.

Few swedes would pick a white mushroom at all, and most would know that it at least shouldn't be white both on top and underneath because that's deadly.

[cc81]

That fits me, I just wrote a comment saying that while I feel very comfortable picking the standard 2-4 mushrooms in Sweden I would never try and pick a white one even if know we have some edible species.