Mighty Mushrooms

[Guest guest]

Mighty Mushrooms

By Jeanne Ringe

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3199

E/The Environmental Magazine - Norwalk,CT

Stamets says we're all descended from mushrooms, and if that's

true, he's one spore who hasn't fallen too far from his fungus of

origin. That's a compliment, and anyone who reads his colorful 2005

book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World (Ten

Speed Press) will probably agree. Like the sentient networks of

mushroom mycelium he champions for environmental remediation,

natural pesticides and improved immune response in people, Stamets

is on a mission to help save the world through his research,

writing, teaching and company Fungi Perfecti, LLC, a source for all

things fungus.

Mushroom man Stamets holding a particularly fine specimen.

© Stamets

Mycelium is a network of threadlike cells of fungi that grows

rapidly and with such purpose and explosive force it can break

through asphalt, concrete, even granite in order to fulfill its

primary function: delivering nutrients, water and information to its

kin and for the benefit of other living creatures.

There is evidence that mushrooms and their mycelia have been on the

planet for 90 million years, meaning they predate the dinosaurs by

millions of years. They were the first living things to migrate from

water to land, Stamets believes, and their ancient evolutionary path

has protected them from pathogens, extreme temperatures, lack of

sunlight, oxygen and moisture so that they are naturally selected to

survive almost anything. Some scientists have recently established a

new " super kingdom " that brings man and mushroom under one taxonomic

roof, Opisthokonta, supporting Stamets' theory of our common

ancestry.

Like some 21st century myco-guru, Stamets spreads the good word

of the great potential of mushrooms through his writing, public

speaking (not easy for someone who describes himself as " painfully

shy " ) and by applying for patents on certain mushroom strains that

could become the key ingredients in many useful household products

in the near future. Stamets is considered one of the foremost

authorities on mushrooms in the world, and his passion for his

subject is inspiring. But he is not without his detractors. Some in

the mushroom community have chastised him for securing multiple

patents on novel, practical applications for certain fungal strains

he created in his own lab. (He's filed for 22 patents in the last

three years and has been awarded one, with two pending, at this

writing.) But if he's bothered by those who question his motives, he

doesn't show it.

" In order to create a paradigm shift, you have to steer the ship, "

Stamets told the audience at LOHAS 10, the conference of Lifestyles

of Health and Sustainability in Santa in late April. " You can

be an advisor, tell people great ideas and try to get them to do

things, but in essence if you don't control the intellectual

property of your own ideas or that which could help other people,

then you become subservient to other people's interests. "

He says he and his wife, Dusty, have invested $300,000 in

researching the properties of the mushrooms he's patented and he

feels they are entitled to recoup that investment. Some of the

research he's conducted has already paid off, if not in dollars,

certainly in credibility.

Mushrooms are " miniature pharmaceutical factories " that can help

support healthy immune function in plants and animals, and have a

record of thousands of years of traditional use in Eastern medicine.

Two mushroom strains tested by the U.S. government for their

potential to treat smallpox were shown to be highly effective

against cowpox, a milder viral disease; one shows promise against

West Nile virus. These particular mushrooms can only be found in the

old growth forest, according to Stamets, prima facie evidence that

preserving these forests is a matter of national security.

This preservation is also a matter of utmost urgency because of its

untapped potential to literally save the planet and its

inhabitants. " Habitats have immune systems, just like people. And in

order to potentiate the host defense of the habitat's immune

systems, we have to invest in biodiversity, " says Stamets. " So

looking at the old growth forest now, the economic cost of a

smallpox outbreak in the U.S. would be in the trillions, and that

trivializes the lumber value in the old growth forests. It's not a

renewable resource, " he explains.

Dressed in a Patagonia pullover and comfortable shoes, it's not hard

to picture this ruggedly handsome 50-year-old dropping out of school

30 years ago and becoming…a lumberjack. " Some of the best

environmentalists are loggers. They didn't want their steelhead

streams cut. They didn't want some of their favorite forestlands

cut. They had their jobs to do, but the logging industry demonized

the environmentalists and used the spotted owl as their target. It

was a dumb thing for the environmental community to elevate the

spotted owl as their mascot. It just made all the lumberjacks have a

lot more fun, " says Stamets.

" This is the problem with polar opposites, " he continues. " There's a

campaign to demonize the other side, a bunch of chatter and a

cacophony of opinion. Most of us are in the middle, " he says.

If there's room for a radical centrist approach in environmentalism,

Stamets makes an awfully good spokesperson. His views are informed

by his early experiences as a young lab rat, and he can articulate

the case for conservation as well as anyone, using descriptions and

anecdotes that are sometimes breathtaking.

A few years ago, the Department of Ecology in Bellingham, Washington

levied fines against the Department of Transportation for a toxic

waste site, where 50 years worth of diesel fuels had contaminated

the soil—20,000 parts per million of hydrocarbons. Under a contract

with Battelle Labs, Stamets inoculated one area with mushroom

mycelium, and the remaining areas were treated with either chemical

cleaners or bacteria. One area was left untreated as a control.

After five weeks, the untreated pile still stank and oozed, as did

the areas with the chemical or bacterial treatments. The myceliated

area, illustrated by a beautiful color photo during 's talk at

LOHAS, showed that enormous oyster mushrooms had sprung to life

(sucking up the toxins like so much Miracle Grow), as had flowers

and grasses. The mushroom-treated pile was reduced to less than 200

parts per million of hydrocarbons in under eight weeks.

Stamets and team achieved remarkable clean-up results after sowing

toxic waste with fungus.

©

An even grander idea, one for which Stamets owns a patent, is to use

mushrooms as a natural pesticide. It works. Stamets points to a

photo of a mummified ant with a mushroom growing out of its head. Is

it any wonder this man can engage an audience of jaded eco-freaks?

But wait, there's more! Take a look at mycelium, the " Earth's

natural Internet, " carrying information and nutrients for miles and

miles to other living creatures. Now look at the World Wide Web. And

the neural networks inside the body, then look at galaxies, and the

cobwebs of dark matter. These are insights that have come to Stamets

without the aid of the " other kind " of mushrooms, and though he did

write a book years ago on psilocybin and other hallucinogens, he

doesn't recommend them to anyone. Who needs it, when just the facts

about garden-variety mushrooms are so mind-blowing?

" A single strand of mushroom mycelium can hold 30,000 times its

weight in water and soil, so mycelium prevents erosion, and as it

honeycombs the soil, microcavities form that become water pockets

and reservoirs. It slowly releases water over time. And as we all

know, water breeds life. So these microcosms become universes of

myriads of organisms. Mycelium is the construct of the food chain, "

Stamets explains.

Perhaps the man's most intriguing and practical invention to date is

the Life Box. Here's how it works. Say you order a pair of

Timberlands online. Under shipping options, you can check " plain old

brown box " or pay an extra dollar or two and get them shipped in a

Life Box. You order the Life Box and your shoes arrive. Instead of

recycling the box, you toss it into the backyard, water it, and

boom, you've got a garden. Depending on your zip code, you're

growing corn, beans and squash, or grassland plants, old growth

forests, you name it. He even thought of shipping them to refugees

after his initial test box yielded 30,000 seeds, enough to start a

small farm!

says he came up with this idea one morning in the period

between sleep and wakefulness, that time when the mind is still in

the dream state, when he believes we are still connected to a higher

consciousness. He tested the idea by embedding seeds and mycelium

into the corrugated lining of cardboard boxes, then used his

marketing brain to figure out how to create a demand for it, by

leveraging the existing matrix of shipping options for mail order

deliveries.

He sees the Life Box as a means to " combat global warming, teach our

kids about sustainability, and re-green the planet. " And yes, he's

filed a patent for this idea, too.

Stamets is living proof that taking a break from college

to " find yourself " can be a very successful strategy. He is happily

married to his soulmate, his work is his joy, and although he

believes his brother is the real genius in the family, appears

to have carved out a place for himself in history by devoting his

life and all of his resources to protecting, promoting and producing

new strains of mushrooms that just might save the Earth.

JEANNE RINGE has worked as a journalist and business consultant for

many years. She was Larry King's first producer, produced Face the

Nation and several documentaries, and has written for a range of

publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street

Journal and Yogi Times. Her website is www.ringeringe.com.

Contact: Fungi Perfecti, LLC, (800)780-9126, www.fungi.com.