SOL Magazine Issue # 7 Spring 2010.
How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World - The work of Paul Stamets.
Our Santa Barbara Permaculture Center, with the help of Wesley Roe and Margie Bushman, has been very supportive of the local Santa Barbara City College's Center for Sustainability. So now we can frequently harvest the fruits of their labors by way of the most amazing, inspiring speakers the Center invites from all over the world.
Paul Stamets, who enchanted my inner child's heart years ago with a "fungi" shipment which promptly flourished with masses of various types of edible mushrooms, came to us straight from one of the prestigious TED conferences where he gave a presentation - and apparently was approached by Bill Gates who seems to be interested in Paul's work. No wonder Paul inspires the power elite, although he never took off his typical gremlin hat for us, made from mushroom fiber, looking as unassuming as ever. Paul's talk caused such a stir that people in the overfilled auditorium would not stop clapping. There are also several other local Permaculture related businesses (such as Quail Springs PC farm, quailsprings.org) who are supporting and helping market these events. One or two individuals, we cannot emphasize it enough, along with a responsive community, can do so much to raise awareness and make for inspiring change.
R.J.
"Mycelium is sentient, it knows you are there."
Paul Stamets believes growing mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment, said the invitation to the community, and explained: "A dedicated mycologist for more than thirty years, Stamets notes that humans, although adept at inventing toxins, are equally inept at removing them from their environment." Paul believes mushrooms can save the world. And they can save us humans from the worst of our own failings and even deliver the kind of pharmaceuticals which kill dangerous infectious organisms without dangerous side effects - the most dangerous of which can be financial.
Indeed, Paul left no doubt in anyone's mind that a "mycological rescue of the planet" can occur with the help of fungi. I cannot explain the work of this remarkable man any better than the words on the official invitation, co-produced by the local PC supporters. "Mycelium, filaments of microscopic cells - of which mushrooms are the fruit - recycle carbon, nitrogen and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris.
What Stamets has discovered is that the enzymes and acids that mycelium produce to decompose this debris, are also superb at breaking apart hydrocarbons, the base structure common to many pollutants. Stamets coined the word ‘myco-restoration’, to describe engaging mycelium to heal habitats and stabilize ecosystems. He believes that mycelium are the neurological network of nature, and that without fungi, all ecosystems would fail." (SBCC Center for Sustainability)
Mycelium are mostly the cause of the wonderful hammock-like feeling we have when walking through old-growth forests, besides of course the fallen leaves and needles. One fascinating fact Paul talked about is the discovery that mycelium, sometimes spreading below the surface of the forest for miles, actually distributes water and nourishment between different species of trees, not just those of one type. This can give one the warm sense of a diligent, ubiquitous earth mother feeding her children equally. When mushrooms pop up, they come forth from the underlying mycelium which indeed "runs" - and Paul has videos to prove it. Therefore the title of his book:
Mycelium Running.
"Most think of mushrooms in terms of edibles like Portabellos or Chantrelles, but the part fungi play in the evolution of the planet is extraordinary. [Paul] states that when the Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago and coalesced out of stardust, organisms first appeared in the ocean. The very first organisms on land were fungi. Earth's ongoing history included asteroid impacts, with loss of sometimes 90% of plant and animal life due to debris dust blotting out the sun. But fungi, without the need for sunlight, survived, and so did animals and plants
 that formed relationships with them." (SBCC Center for Sustainability)
Paul is the founder of Fungi Perfecti (www.fungi.com) and has been a dedicated mycologist for over thirty years. During this time, he has discovered and coauthored four new species of mushrooms, and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation. He received a Bioneers Award and a Founder of a New Northwest Award, received the National Geographic Green-Novator and the Argosy Foundation's E-chievement Awards. He was also named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" and has been a presenter at the prestigious TED conferences.
"Paul sees the ancient Old Growth forests of the Pacific Northwest as a resource of incalculable value, especially in terms of its fungal genome. A dedicated hiker and explorer, his passion is to preserve, protect, and clone as many ancestral strains of mushrooms as possible from these pristine woodlands. Much of the financial resources generated from sales of goods from Fungi Perfecti are returned to sponsor such research." (www.fungi.com)
"The time to act is now," Paul warns passionately. "Waiting for science and society to wake up to the importance of these ancient Old Growth fungi is perilously slow and narrow in vision. The meager attempts thus far may be too little, too late. Unless we collectively pool our resources, the mushroom genome will become increasingly threatened, and therefore, our very existence may be at stake. The loss of these keystone organisms should be an ecological call-to-arms for all concerned about our children's future and the future of this planet."
In his writings, Paul explains that "the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest may harbor mushroom species with profound medicinal properties. At the current rates of extinctions, this last refuge of the mushroom genome should be at the top of the list of priorities for mycologists, environmentalists and government. If I can help advance this knowledge, I will have done my part to protect life on this planet. And yet, if it were not for our customer's contributions, with our limited finances, this goal could not be achieved." (www.fungi.com)
"Mycelial Magic: Six Ways That Mushrooms Can Save The World" is a short video presentation giving you a very fast and invaluable education in this poorly understood subject matter so essential to our survival. Please do take less than twenty minutes to listen and watch one of Paul's TED presentations on video, right on his website or on youtube. You will never be the same.
 Then, order some mushroom spores, watch them expand as if in a dream, find an atheist and see if they keep insisting that "there is no God". If so, tell them what Paul saw, but only with the help of a pilot and a small plane, although he almost gave up: a 2000 kilometer large unbroken mycelium, so expansive that they didn't realize for the longest time that they were actually flying above it, unaware of its presence until they climbed up so high that we almost lost them both due to asphyxiation. There it was, the largest organism on the planet, one cell-wall "thick" - and I'm sure it knew that Paul, camera in hand, almost killed himself trying to get a family photo of it. And if they say they are more interested in making a buck, and in their bottom-line, tell them that Paul figured out a harmless way to eliminate termites from any house, forever, without the detrimental, ongoing spray of poisonous pesticides. Do they want to invest? The one thing Paul hasn't been able to grow like mushrooms is money - so anyone with lots of cash on hand to help Paul save the world is most welcome. Maybe he will even give them his gremlin hat?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All information courtesy of Paul Stamets and Fungi Perfect, reprinted with permission:
www.fungi.com
Mycelium Running - A Book Review
By Markho Rafael, D.C.
Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets has been the perpetual best-seller on popular mycology since published in 2005. It’s an indispensible reference book for anybody working the land, especially foresters, farmers and environmental cleanup contractors. It’s also a great book for anyone interested in growing their own food mushrooms.
The book is filled to the brim with valuable information on how to improve soils for farming, gardening and forestry; create simple, low-cost biofilters for waste water (mycofiltration); and clean up toxic waste (mycoremediation).
For example, an easy do-it-yourself method of creating a mycofiltration bed for filtering waste water is delineated in detail. Recommended materials are listed along with suggested mushroom species to use and the ideal dimensions of the bed. In Stamets’ examples, these mycofiltration beds are used to effectively filter and neutralize farm runoff but they could also be used to filter industrial waste water.
Not only does it solve the problem of farm runoff and
E.coli contamination of nearby streams, it can als o yield highly palatable food mushrooms, and the bed itself can be dug out every 2-3 years and then used as an excellent fertilizer for the farm.
Another piece of useful information for farmers and gardeners found in
Mycelium Running concerns the no-till farming method as opposed to the conventional method of plowing the fields after harvest. No-till farming helps promote saprophytic fungi (decomposing fungi), which break down organic material at a pace better suited to plant-life than the rapid and heat producing breakdown by anaerobic bacteria, which are the primary decomposers when stubble is plowed under. The mycelium of saprophytic fungi also binds the soil to prevent erosion and loss of valuable nutrients.
Saprophytic fungi benefit forests too, by breaking down organic matter but also help by competing with parasitic fungi (blights), which may kill thousands of trees if not stopped. Foresters can easily seed saprophytic mushrooms in blight infested areas as a natural fungicide against parasitic fungi, fighting fire with fire.
The symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi can also be seeded in forests to promote healthy trees. Or they can be protected and naturally promoted through wise and informed forest management.
Mycorrhizal fungi help extend the reach of tree roots to better absorb nutrients and water, thus making the trees healthier and more drought resistant. Mycorrhizal fungi also manufacture and provide trees with natural antibiotics against many pathogens, especially parasitic fungi.
Another cutting edge technology in
Mycelium Running is Mycoremediation, the neutralization of toxins through the use of mushroom mycelium. The term
Mycoremediation was coined by Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running, but was already in common use among mycologists before publication.
Contaminants that may be effectively
mycoremediated include, but are not limited to, heavy metals, pathological bacteria (such as
E. coli), petrochemicals, neurotoxins, dioxin, toxic dyes and other toxic industrial waste.
Mycoremediation has also been shown to be the most economical method of cleaning up toxic waste sites, up to 95% cheaper than some common conventional methods.
This plethora of information is merely the first half of this 300-page tome. Part III, which makes up the second half of the book, is an instruction manual on how to cultivate your own mushroom mycelium, which can be used for the above listed purposes, or to grow your own medicinal or culinary mushrooms. And seriously, who doesn’t love gourmet mushrooms? In other words, this is a reference book for every household.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Markho Rafael has worked in natural health
since finishing Chiropractic College in the mid-90's. He
currently focuses on medicinal fungi, frequently consulting
two reference books: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets for chemical, biological and medicinal properties
of mushrooms, and Mushrooms Demystified by
David Arora as the most complete identification guide
for North American mushrooms. You can connect with
him on www.mycelium-running.info .
© Dr. Markho Rafael; reprinted with permission
www.cordycepsreishiextracts.com
... Copyright © Space of Love Magazine, 2010 All rights reserved
|
