Mycelium Magic: How Mushrooms Can Save the Planet

Mushrooms can be found all around the world and have been used for centuries as a source of food, medicine, and in ritual and religious practices. The real magic, however, happens underground.
Mushrooms are the fruit of microscopic cells called mycelium. These cells recycle carbon, nitrogen and other elements as they break down plant and animal debris to create rich new soil. Mycelium's digestive power can be used in what Paul Stamets refers to as mycorestoration.

Paul Stamets has been a dedicated mycologist for over 40 years and is founder of Fungi Perfecti, dedicated to promoting the cultivation of high quality gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. He has written six books and has received numerous awards. Stamets' book, Mycelium Running is my go-to guide on mycology, and his TED talk 6 ways mushrooms can save the world is definitely worth watching.

In Mycelium Running, Stamets explains the different facets of mycorestoration. Mycoremediation uses mycelium's digestive power to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants. Mycofiltration uses the same digestive power to catch and reduce pathogens from agricultural watersheds. Mycopesticides control insect populations. Mycoforestry and mycogardening enhance the health of forests and gardens. The potential benefit in adopting any of these forms of bio-remediation is obvious. 

Pollution of waterways is rampant. Devastation caused by strip mining, deforestation, oil spills, and factory farming dot the face of the earth like a pox. Nature has provided us with a way to alleviate, and possibly reverse, the damage. Mycelium could be the answer.  But it can also be used as an aid in developing healthier ecosystems, like forests, which are under stress from air pollution and logging.

Organic gardeners can see a benefit by using mycelium to increase the abundance of their crops, and to provide natural pest control. Many mushroom growers help farmers to dispose of manure from livestock. They also buy lower grade hay, which provides additional income for farmers whose land might otherwise have been idle.

As a food source mushrooms are rich in protein, antioxidants, dietary fiber, and complex carbohydrates. They are very low in simple carbohydrates and fat. Mushrooms are good sources of essential minerals - especially selenium, copper, and potassium - elements important for immune function and the production of antioxidants to reduce free radicals. They also contain medicinal compounds, natural antibiotics, enzymes, and enzyme inhibitors that fortify health.

Mushrooms, such as reishi, shiitake, and maitake, have been used for Traditional Chinese Medicine
for thousands of years. There are over 200 species of mushrooms in China that are used to practice healing. One amazing property of mushrooms is a compound called polysaccharides. This enables mushrooms to boost the immune system and fight the growth of tumors. Mushrooms are also high in amino acids, nicotinic acid, riboflavin, vitamins B, C, and K, and pantothenic acid.

Fun fact: a specific honey fungus measuring 2.4 miles (3.8 km) across in the Blue Mountains in Oregon is thought to be the largest living organism on Earth. A clonal colony of the honey mushroom (Armillaria solidipes) covers 2,384 acres (nearly four square miles) of soil and is estimated to be 2,400 years old but could be as ancient as 8,650 years.

I hope we will see greater use of mycorestoration in the future, as I believe it is a viable means of cleaning up the mess we have made. Greater research into the medicinal value of mushrooms needs to continue, as well. 

Until next time...become the change you imagine.

Magic Mushrooms and the Quest for a Circular Economy

Eban Bayer, co-founder of Ecovative, wrote an interesting article, for GOOD, about the need for a more circular economy. Circular economy is a generic term for an industrial economy that is, by design or intention, restorative and in which materials flows are of two types: biological nutrients, designed to reenter the biosphere safely, and technical nutrients, which are designed to circulate at high quality without entering the biosphere.


Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart’s book Cradle to Cradle  describes a holistic economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to create systems that are not only efficient but also essentially waste free.  The model in its broadest sense is not limited to industrial design and manufacturing; it can be applied to many aspects of human civilization such as urban environments, buildings, economics and social systems.

Bayer's company has addressed this by creating a patented process that cleans and blends agricultural "castoffs" - parts of plants that can't be used for feed or food - and then innoculates them with mycelium.  The mycelium grows indoors in about a week without any need for light, watering or petrochemical inputs.  Every cubic inch of material contains a matrix of 8 miles of tiny mycelial fibers! At the end of the process, the materials are put through a dehydration and heat treating process to stop the growth. This final process ensures that there will never be any spores or allergen concerns.
 
The result is organic packaging that is grown from waste products and can be composted when it is no longer usable.  What's not to love about that?!  Ecovative is also working on using their Mushroom Materials for a variety of building applications, including insulation, structural insulating panels and acoustical tiles. These materials have low or no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), are fire resistant, and perform similarly to traditional synthetic materials.

For more examples of bio-adaptive approaches to manufacturing, check out these sites:

Terracycle
Biomimicry 3.8
Ask Nature
Biohabitats
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Vauban
Osmotic power plants

As conscious consumers we need to be aware of developments in the field of regenerative design, and support those companies that live the principles of sustainability and circular economy.

Until next time...become the change you imagine.

Self-Education and How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

My current attempt at self-education is reading a book by Paul Stamets entitled Mycelium Running-How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. Paul is founder of Fungi Perfecti and has been a mycologist for over thirty years. "How can mushrooms save the planet?", you ask.

To quote from the flyleaf -- "The basic science goes like this: Microscopic cells called 'mycelium' - the fruit of which are mushrooms - recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris in the creation of rich new soil. What Stamets has discovered is that we can capitalize on mycelium's digestive power and target it to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants (mycoremediation), catch and reduce silt from streambeds and pathogens from agricultural watersheds (mycofiltration), control insect populations (mycopesticides), and generally enhance the health of our forests and gardens (mycogardening)."

And you thought mushrooms were only good in spaghetti sauce! Who knew?!

The book is fascinating, although very technical. Paul is, after all, a botanist, and uses the technical jargon of that discipline. It is full of photographs and diagrams which help to illustrate the principles involved, which makes this book appealing to the layman.

For anyone looking for a way to help the planet, check into mycorestoration and mycoremediation. This is a process that can be utilized at local levels by ordinary people with the proper information and training. If you have read-or are a proponent of -Natural Capitalism, Paul has a diagram on page 99 you'll want to check out.

Keep educating yourself on what you can do to help the planet survive, and thrive.

Until next time....become the change you imagine.