THURSDAY, JAN 26, 2023: NOTE TO FILE
Module 3-19
Mycorestoration
Leading Mycologist, Paul Stamets, has been a tireless investigator, communicator, innovator and entrepreneur to show how mushrooms can help us to solve complex problems from cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu viruses. In his book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World , Paul Stamets (2005) links mushroom cultivation, Permaculture, ecoforestry, bioremediation and soil enhancement, to make the case that mushroom farms can be reinvented as healing arts centers, steering ecological evolution for the benefit of humans living in harmony with our planet’s life-support systems and its ecological cycles. Here is a link to Paul’s TED-talk (17:40mins) that is well worth watching if you are unfamiliar with this field and Paul’s work. The four components of mycorestoration include:
i. Mycofiltration: the filtration of biological and chemical pathogens as well as controlling erosion.
ii. Mycoforestry and mycogardening: the use of mycelium for companion cultivation for the benefit and protection of plants.
iii. Mycoremediation: the use of mycelium for decomposing toxic wastes and pollutants.
iv. Mycopesticides: the use of mycelium for attracting and controlling insect populations.
Stamets has built his company, Fungi Perfecti, into a successful green business and has filed a long list of patents (to protect his innovations against what he calls “the vulture capitalists”). Stamets’ work and extensive collection of fungal mycelia will be a critical resource as ecosystems regeneration becomes a central activity for humanity in the 21st Century. A parting quote from Paul Stamets (2005: 55): “On land, all life springs from soil. Soil is ecological currency. If we overspend it or deplete it, the environment goes bankrupt. In either preventing or rebuilding after environmental catastrophe, mycologists can become environmental artists by designing landscapes for both human and natural benefit.”
Module 3, lesson 20
