With the 2012 season finally coming to a close, let’s take a look back on all of this year’s happenings. As usual, Amateur Mycology was extremely busy with all of our usual projects this summer. We were also booked most of the season with Mycotours, our sister company, that provides private guided mushroom foraging with expert guides in beautiful locations across the United States. On these tours, guests learn to identify and use wild mushrooms and plants, all while exploring these outdoor locations. These hikes usually range from a walk in town, to a strenuous hike through the mountains, with an emphasis on the ecosystem’s flora. We also offer cook and tastes and lunch on a private chef basis. For more information on our tours, or to schedule an expedition, visit Mycotours.com.

Amateur Mycology attended the 2012 Telluride Mushroom Festival again this year, and all of our seminars were a major success. Bert Matthews, James Weiser, and I gave hands on demonstrations in our mobile laboratory  and did several classes about various sterile lab techniques. This also included cloning many of the mushrooms from the identification table as well! Bert also exhibited his Pleurotus mushroom sculptures to all of the class attendees. I gave a lecture entitled, “Mycophagy: the culture of eating fungi” in the Elks Lodge this year. I covered several interesting topics including information about many of the different types of edible mushrooms from around the world and their cultural uses, as well as delved into the many aspects of fermentation with fungi. We talked about fermentation with the fungi molds, but also talked about using the macro fungi to ferment food products as well (I will be writing an article about this topic soon). We also discussed the many meanings of the word ‘culture’, and how ‘cultures of fungi’ have shaped many human ‘cultures’ across the world.  Lecture attendees also got to look at various fungi growing on petri dishes that I brought with me that are used to ferment food products. These included Aspergillus oryzae (koji/miso/sake), Penicillium roqueforti (blue cheese), Rhizopus oligosporus (tempeh), and Penicillium camemberti (brie/Camembert). Mycotours also competed in the Annual Mushroom Chef Cook-off with our Porcini Sushi Roll with Porcini sauce. It was mentioned in Alisa Geiser’s blog article ‘The Curious Ways We Find Eachother: Day Two at the Telluride Mushroom Festival’ on elephantjournal.com. You can read more about the mushroom cook-off at TellurideInside.com or The Telluride Festivarian. For more information on this year’s Telluride Mushroom Festival, or for info about the event in 2013, visit shroomfest.com. You can also listen to an interview with Scott, the director of the festival on the new radio show I am working on called ‘A Fermented Affair‘! You can find it here, on BlogTalkRadio.com. You can also find Telluride Mushroom Festival and A Fermented Affair on Facebook!

I also presented at Syntonic Music Festival that featured over 40 different electronic music artists and about 20 workshops. I gave a lecture entitled ‘Introduction to Fungi’ where we discussed how mushrooms can be used for more than just a great side dish in a meal, they could maybe help save the planet!! For more information about the 2012 Syntonic workshops or the music artists visit their website at syntonicfest.com.

As always, stay tuned for more pictures and video of these events and information to the upcoming events Amateur Mycology is working on.

This quick update will cover our recent project with Dr. Rytas Vilgalys, Professor of Biology at Duke University. Dr. Rytas was kind enough to do some PCR DNA and get an ITS sequence of some of our various collections of Pleurotus that were found growing on pine wood.

Over the past 2 years, James and I have been on the hunt for an oyster mushroom that grows on pine. To explain, I should first give a little background about these particular fungi. They tend to favor deciduous wood, especially poplar trees in Colorado. To most fungi, pine wood isn’t something easy to eat. Coniferous trees contain natural resins that tend to contain chemicals that are quite anti-fungal. This does not mean that fungi cannot eat coniferous wood, it is just quite difficult for them to do. However, Pleurotus are special fungi. They have discovered a quite efficient method of decomposing their substrate, excreting powerful digestive enzymes able to breakdown many different types of freshly cut wood. There is even a type of Pleurotus that can grow on cactus skeletons! The Pleurotus that James and I had found were growing from the cut stumps of pine trees and a spruce log growing at 10,000′ in elevation. These were cultured in our lab in Denver and were eventually sent to Dr. Rytas. He was interested in them because of their unique habitats they were found growing in and was wondering, as we were, if they were a possible new species of Pleurotus. He also received a few control collections of Pleurotus pulmonarius from various locations in the state, growing from cottonwood trees. These were tested against the mushrooms that were found growing on conifers. This testing is basically done by taking known sets of genes from a specific species of fungi and testing samples of DNA against those genes to see if they are similar enough to be the same genetic group (hopefully that wasn’t too over simplified?). Much to our surprise, every specimen came back as P. pulmonarius! It is well documented that P. pulmonarius grows occasionally from conifer, but these specimens also had unique morphological features that were distinctly different, even with indoor grown mushrooms in a controlled environment! Just goes to show that morphology sometimes can tell you very little about what type of fungi you have. We now know that our cultures of oysters collected from these conifer habitats are P. pulmonarius, but have somehow developed a unique set of digestive enzymes to deal with the oils in the wood that tend to inhibit fungi.

The reason James and I are extremely interested in pine loving oysters is because the Rocky Mountains are plagued with a pine eating beetle that is destroying our forests by the entire mountainside. The general way to deal with this problem (due to the extreme fire danger it creates) is to cut down the infected trees and pile them in large piles. They are used mainly for fire wood, but the pine loving  mushrooms would decompose the wood much faster, creating larger soil depth. Paul Stamets has a discussion in his book, Mycelium Running, about the honey mushroom and its method of creating a deeper humus depth. Many of these plagues, whether they be a fungus or an insect, may look very disastrous to the environment to humans. This is only because of our perception of time. The trees that once stood as a forest are now decomposing, increasing the potential of the forest to create more life. As soil depth increases, the forest can house more and more plants. We would like to make these Pleurotus part of the solution to this large problem we are facing today.

The following article is from radicalmycology.com and is a written report all about the recent Radical Mycology Convergence 2011 that was held in Concrete, WA in early September. Amateur Mycology attended the event giving presentations on ‘Green Mushroom Cultivation’ and ‘Forest Floor Cultivation’ techniques. Very soon we will have video clips of the event as well, here at amateurmycology.com, so stay tuned!

-September 14th, 2011-

 Over 200 people gathered in northern Washington state this past Labor Day weekend to learn about the many uses of the fungal kingdom at the world’s first Radical Mycology Convergence. For four days, people gathered from several countries and various cultural backgrounds to teach and learn together about mycoremediation, the use of fungi as a tool to help combat mass pollution and ecological degradation. In an age when so many human caused disasters are occurring throughout the world, the fungi are beginning to be seen as a strong option for tackling some of these great problems long thought impossible to solve.

WHY RADICAL MYCOLOGY?

Access to mycological information is not easy. With a cultural view that fears fungi, a schooling system that undervalues them, and only a small number of courses on advanced mycology worldwide, it is easy to see why the fifth kingdom is so disregarded and misunderstood. As one of the youngest natural sciences, mycology (the study of fungi) has largely been kept in the hands of professionals since its development with much of the official work focusing simply on taxonomy and species edibility/toxicity. However, in the last few decades (and really just the last few years) the greater fungi have started to gain more acceptance and familiarity to those outside of academia as their uses beyond the dinner plate are starting to be realized.

It is surprising to note that most people do not realize that fungi are not only on, in and a part of all living (and once-living) things but that they play an extremely important role in the life cycle of plants as well. Acting like stewards of the forest, certain fungi create complex networks of “mycelium” (that white stuff you see when you pull back a decaying log) underground that serve to channel nutrients and water between plants and to help maintain the health of entire ecosystems. The fungi are also responsible for the decomposition of all woody material, turning dead plant matter in to fresh soil for new plants to thrive in. Without the fungi the world would be piled high in dead trees with no new ones growing.

In the last decade or so, mycologists have discovered that the same enzymes that fungi naturally produce to digest their food can also be used to break down toxic pollutants and petroleum products. Species have been discovered that can digest plastics, disposable diapers, motor oil, DDT, and Agent Orange as well as sequester and concentrate heavy metals out of polluted soil for later disposal. This emerging field of “mycoremediation” has only barely gained a foundation from which to grow on as in-depth research and experimentation in the last few years has been scant at best and suppressed at worst. As such a powerful ally in the fight to save the planet before ecological collapse, the fungi are now more worthy of investigation than ever before*. Thus, the RMC was formed to foster a community of people interested in developing and implementing mycoremediative techniques to provide a resource for peer learning and encouragement.

Through the use of fungi to enact change, we are attempting to radically challenge assumptions about the importance of the fungal kingdom in an effort to help shift our relationship to the Earth toward greater harmony.

WHY A CONVERGENCE?

The intent of the organizers of the RMC in forming the event was three fold: 1) To share mycological information in an accessible manner using the simplest techniques and a minimal amount of equipment 2) To promote the use of mycoremediation techniques & 3) To build an all-inclusive & non-hierarchical network of amateur & professional mycologists. We feel we were quite successful in our efforts to a degree beyond any expectations.

Despite a full schedule all weekend, the RMC went off without a hitch. Workshops included sterile and non-sterile cultivation methods, mycopermaculture/mushrooms in the garden, mycomedicinals, mushroom paper and dye making, and fungi and lichen identification. There were also presentations on ethnomycology in Mexico by professional mycologists from Baja California. Folks from the Amazon Mycorenewal Project spoke on their work to clean up oil spills in Ecuador using oyster mushrooms. And a representative from the Mushroom Development Foundation spoke to their work teaching Indian farmers to grow mushrooms from agricultural waste. All this took place on a communal farm with nightly group fires, a raging talent show and raffle, and great swimming holes. Add in a general sense of commonality and you get an inspiring weekend of learning and building a community where one had not existed before.

Many presenters demonstrated techniques they had developed on their own to reduce the use of fossil fuels and expensive equipment from cultivating mushrooms. James from Amateur Mycology in Colorado stated that he hadn’t thrown away a piece of paper for 2 years as he was turning it all into mushrooms. James also spoke of successes in using mushroom beds as living mulch in a greenhouse to increase plant yields. Another workshop demonstrated tissue culturing in open air using only hydrogen peroxide and alcohol to sterilize your equipment. A big take away message from the weekend was that there is so much yet to be discovered about mycology–and so few people doing it–that it will take the work of amateurs to increase understanding.

As a culmination to the weekend, we implemented 2 small remediation projects at the host farm to put theory to practice. We set up 2 beds of King Stropharia mushrooms to help decompose the humanure produced at the farm. We also installed various burlap sacks inoculated with Blue Oyster mushrooms around the farm’s spring to help filter the water or possible runoff from a nearby road as well as prevent erosion to the surrounding hill side.

Through the RMC we created an environment that encouraged skill and knowledge sharing by embracing diversity and working toward the greater goal of a healthier planet and way of life. With the advances being made over the last few years, working with the fungi has never been easier than now, at a time when their capabilities are of greatest import. This information deserves to be in the hands of those who want it and the Radical Mycology Convergence was one step among several toward reaching that goal.

NEXT STEPS

On the final day of the convergence an open discussion was held to reflect on the RMC and to discuss ideas for future gatherings as well as how folks plan to implement this information in their local communities. The consensus showed that those present were excited to begin the process of developing a web-based forum or wiki to enable cultivators and experimenters to share techniques and experiences in relation to low-tech cultivation and remediation work. Similarly, free publications will be produced that teach these techniques and demonstrate case studies of the work people are doing with fungi. Also, a decentralized formal network will be created of groups of people doing this work so as to stay connected, organize future/regional RMCs, and to collaborate as desired.

A truly unique event, the first Radical Mycology Convergence was a huge success drawing in all types of people to live and learn together. The RMC demonstrated the power of a shared concern for the future of the planet to overcome personal differences in political or worldviews and the need to embrace novel ideas for tackling some of the world’s problems. We found that out of their backyards and garages, people are developing novel ways to work with the fungi to reduce their waste streams, filter their water, produce food and potent medicines easily, as well as work to clean up their local landbases thru remediation work.

The meme of radical mycology is only just developing. Time will tell how common this information and these techniques will become in the future. For now we invite those interested in learning more to follow the links and articles at www.radicalmycology.com.

In sporidarity,

The Radical Mycology Convergence organizers

radmycology@gmail.com

* This is not to say this information addresses the problem of eliminating the manufacturing of these products. Rather it provides a way to actually deal with existing problems alongside efforts to stop their proliferation.

PHOTOS BY Charlotte RMC

James and I just got back on the 7th of September from the Radical Mycology Convergence 2011. One of the organizers of the event got on the local short wave radio station, KOWA, in Olympia, WA yesterday to talk about the RMC and plans for the future. Check out the interview below. A written report of the RMC to come soon. Stay tuned.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Visit http://radicalmycology.wordpress.com/ for more information!!

The 31st Telluride Mushroom Festival, a celebration of all things fungal and entheogenic, was an amazing success this year, with more people attending than in any year previous. Paul Stamets, Valerie Mojeiko, David Arora, Michael Beug, Linnea Gillman, Ron Spinosa, Bill Adams, Gary Lincoff, Larry Evans, along with many others, made this an absolutely amazing event. Amateur Mycology did 2 presentations entitled ‘How to Capture Your Wild Mycelium with Sterile Culture’ that turned out to be a huge success. We brought our portable sterile lab with us and showed everyone at the seminar how to clone a wild mushroom in a sterile environment. It was also available for any of the mycologists that were presenting as a service, so that they could clone their own specimens of fungi to take with them home. The whole event was so very well put together, and we would like to thank Art Goodtimes, ‘the shroompa’, for all of his hard work in putting this monumental collection of fungal allies together, all in one place. Stay tuned for photos of the event, along with a link to the official schedule for this year, and info on how to go in 2012.

The first annual Radical Mycology Convergence is September 2nd-5th! Just in case you were wondering, it is a free, volunteer-run gathering of mycologists, hobbyists, and Earth healers coming together to share skills and information related to  the benefits of the fungal kingdom in terms of remediative properties as well as human uses. This weekend-long event will culminate in a remediation project to put theory to practice and will also be a unique chance to build community with like-minded mycophiles (aka mushroom lovers) from around North America. Amateur Mycology will be presenting on the event, as well as helping with the mycoremediation project that will end the event. We can’t wait to be out in Washington State, hunting mushrooms and making mycelial connections with all of these amazing people. We will keep you posted on what happens, otherwise see you there!! For more information about the Mycology Convergence, visit their website at http://radicalmycology.wordpress.com/.

“Fungi . . . are the primary governors of ecological equilibrium.”

-Paul Stamets,  Mycelium Running

Abstract

The concept of “sustainability” is becoming ever more prominent in almost every area of human affairs, from individual households to the planet Earth itself. A brief history of the development of the concept of sustainability and its implementation is presented. The United Nation’s Earth Summits have been especially important in creating programs to promote sustainable development in response to the global crisis that has resulted from a century ofexploitation of the Earth’s resources and exponential human population growth. Fungi can play a significant role in the pursuit of sustainability. For example, mushroom cultivation may be integrated into schemes for recycling agricultural waste as well as providing nutrition and income for peoples living in developing nations. Fungi are essential for the health and sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems. In the case of catastrophic destabilization of the earth’s ecosystems by human folly, fungi will prepare the way for the future. “How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World”—This is the rather sensational subtitle of Paul Stamets’s superb new book, Mycelium Running. If you haven’t yet read his inspiring book you might thinkthat his subtitle is hyperbole, but he passionately believes that ifwe commune and cooperate with the mycelial networks beneath our feet—networks that form an essential component of theearth’s ecosystems—there is hope for the survival of our species. Stamets is not alone in his optimism about the future role of mushrooms (and other fungi) in human affairs. A number of organizations see mushroom cultivation playing an important partin moving our planet toward sustainability. I would like to intro-duce one of these organizations, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI), that is doing especially innovative work with mushrooms and sustainability, but first a brief overview of the history of the sustainability movement may make our discussion more meaningful.

Sustainability

The word “sustainability” has recently come to find itself pushedforward into the limelight and attached as a modifier to nouns with which it formerly had no more than a nodding acquaintance. “Sustainable development,” for example, has been with us for sometime, but more recent pairings are now commonplace: sustainable agriculture, sustainable design, sustainable energy, sustainable tourism, and sustainable living, to name a few. I’m sure you will come across the word at least once today. The more this word appears in the current media, the more familiar we all become with the ideas behind it, and the more it reflects the growing shift in the way we view our relationship to the earth and all its species. It is the foundation of the Green Movement, for example. It represents one aspect of this shift of perspective and emphasizes the value of ecological preservation, maximization of biodiversity, and empowerment of local communities. Ever since the Apollo missions gave us images on our TV screens of the pretty blue marble in space, the fact that we are all passengers on “spaceship earth” has been dramatically impressed upon our consciousness. With that image we could more concretely begin to view our species as only one in an intricately interdependent network. We could more easily imagine ourselves as one among millions of species living in a thin membrane, the biosphere, on the surface of our planet whose resources are not endlessly exploitable. The philosophy of sustainability is a repudiation of the early 20th-century industrial model of the exploitation of nature, with its technology driven economic growth and demand for ever-greater consumption of products and services. The underlying ethic of sustainability was succinctly articulated in the 1987 United Nations report, “Our Common Future” (AKA “The Bruntland Report”): “. . . meeting the needs of thepresent generation without compromising the ability of futuregenerations to meet their needs. (www.un.org/geninfo/bp/envirp2.html) The report prescribed sustainability as a goal to be applied to every level of organization, from local communities to the entire planet. The Bruntland Report was the result of the work of the United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by former Norwegian Prime Minister, Grö Harlem Brundtland. (See United Nations Briefing Papers Home Page at: www.un.org/geninfo/bp/worconf.html). One of the principle conclusions of the Commission was that our critical global environmental problems are primarily the result of the enormous poverty of the South and the non-sustainable patterns of consumption and production in the North. This Commission was the impetus for the UN Earth Summit in 1992, where a global plan for sustainable development was first revealed. The plan became known as “Agenda 21” (the 21 refers to the 21st century). The next Earth Summit at Johannesburg in 2002 (The World Summit on Sustainable Development) called for full implementation of Agenda 21, along with the achievement of the “Millennium Development Goals” by 2015. Those goals are as follows:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

(See Millennium Development Goals at www.un.org/millenniumgoals) The United Nations, believing that it is of vital importance for everyone to understand the concept of sustainability and the Millennium Development Goals, has declared a “Decade of Education for Sustainable Development,” which started in January 2005. The response to the UN’s reports and initiatives has been overwhelming. Scores of organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, have arisen to work toward sustainability in all areas of human activity economic, ethical, social, technological, and environmental. A list of some of those organizations is appended at the end of this article.

What Do Mushrooms Have to Do with Sustainability?

I am sure you recall seeing news reports about the mass slaughter of millions Asian chickens and other poultry as a measure to prevent the spreading of the deadly avian flu. In response to the crisis the government of Hong Kong declared a complete ban on the raising of poultry. Millions of chickens were exterminated in an attempt to kill all poultry in the province (Nowak, 2002; Young, 2002). This action has had a devastating effect on hundreds of small farmers, whose livelihoods have depended on raising poultry for generations. As a remedy for the plight of the poultry farmers, the Hong Kong Department of Agriculture is offering an alternative to poultry farming—mushroom cultivation. The farmers are being offered seminars to learn the techniques for mushroom cultivation and marketing (UPI, Hong Kong, Feb. 15. 2006). There are a number of good reasons for promoting mushroom cultivation: Mushrooms are a crop that grows rapidly and yields high returns. For example, Oyster mushrooms can fruit in one month. Mushroom growing houses can be very simply made at low cost, using low tech methods, on small plots of land. A mushroom cultivation business can be managed by a family or small community. The prices commanded by mushrooms are much greater than for other comparable produce, and the demand for “gourmet mushrooms” is increasing worldwide. Mushrooms are quite nutritious, and they can be a potential food source as well as a marketable product in impoverished areas. In addition, mushrooms have significant medicinal properties, which makes them a potential health food commodity. Shiitake mushrooms for example, are a source of the compound Lentinan, which is being evaluated as an anti-cancer drug. Even the ubiquitous polypore, Trametes versicolor (“Turkey Tail”) is a source of “ PSK,” another substance with anti-cancer potential (Hobbs, 1995). Health foodstores and upscale “whole foods” markets now have whole lines of “mycomedicinals.” Paul Stamets (1999) is well known for his pioneering work in this area. The most significant virtue of mushroom cultivation is that mushrooms can perform the alchemy of transforming agricultural and other organic waste into a nutritious and marketable product. Oyster mushrooms can grow on cottonseed hulls, cocoa hulls, banana leaves, coffee waste, straw, and even newspaper and cardboard. Shiitake mushrooms grow well on many different woods and forest waste materials. But that is not the end—once the mushroom harvest is over, the spent mushroom substrate has all the nutrients, protein, and medicinal compounds found in the mushrooms themselves. This makes it an ideal feed product for livestock, being both nutritional and medicinal (Adamovic et al., 1998). Alternatively it can be used as excellent compost for other plant or vegetable crops, again turning a waste product into a valuable resource.

ZERI and Mushroom Cultivation

ZERI (http://www.zeri.org/) is an international organization founded by the visionary eco-designer, Gunter Pauli. Pauli has been a pioneer of sustainability. He has a long record of achievements in this field starting in the 1980s. Pauli was selected as one of “100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum. He is currently traveling internationally to train and certify practitioners of his revolutionary eco-design principles. His students have gone on to initiate projects in both developed and developing nations (Pauli, 1996; 1997). ZERI stands for Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives. The philosophy of ZERI in a nutshell is “Zero emissions means zero waste.” It applies “systems thinking” which is holistic and considers feedback loops in complex dynamic systems, to design projects applicable to all human needs—food, shelter, livelihood, self esteem, community—in a sustainable manner. The design principles of  ZERI are modeled on the natural world, drawing instruction from the relationships among the five kingdoms of life on earth—bacteria, protists (e.g. algae), plants, animals and fungi. In the natural world we observe that the waste, or even the toxin, of one kingdom is often a nutrient or energy source for species of another kingdom. A prime example would be the saprophytic relationship between fungi and plants. Without fungi we would, of course, be smothered by mountains of dead plant material. The five kingdoms, working together harmoniously in a healthy ecosystem, process organic matter to maximize productivity, biodiversity, and the resilience of the system itself. An ecosystem endures indefinitely, as long as the climate and environment are stable. Resources do not become exhausted, nor does the ecosystem pollute itself into oblivion. It is, in otherwords, sustainable.

Beer, Bread and Mushrooms

Let’s examine a ZERI project that will illustrate its design principles. The project was initiated in a small community in Tsumeb, Namibia, where a brewery was developed. In traditional breweries, the beer making process generates huge quantities of organic waste and lost energy for every unit of beer produced. In fact, only a small percent of the nutrients in the grain are utilized in the process.The protein in the grain is left almost untouched.The spent grain becomes waste, yet it contains a considerable amount potential nutrients. A traditional brewery would often dispose of the spent grain in a landfill. An obvious waste disposal solution might be to feed the spent grain to animals. The problem with that is that animals find it difficult to digest spent grain—and it gives them gas. The result is considerable amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas, emitted into the atmosphere. This emission represents pollution and wasted energy. To make matters worse, the runoff from manure produced by the animals may also pollute the watershed to further sully the environment.

In accordance with ZERI design principles, the Namibian brewery has found a way to turn waste into a resource, thus generating “value added.” This is where the mushrooms come in. The spent grain is a prime substrate for the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus. With a relatively small investment, a simple mushroom cultivation operation will yield a crop of nutritious and marketable oyster mushrooms, as well as more jobs for the local farmers. After fruiting and harvesting, the mushroom substrate has increased protein content, since it is loaded with mycelium. As it turns out, livestock find the substrate palatable, and the increased protein content means an increase in the growth of the animals and better quality meat. Another use for the spent grain is to incorporate it into bread, so there will be more bread to feed more humans—another example of “value added.”

But that is not the end of the story. Other kingdoms need enter the picture. Wastewater from the brewing process can be used to flush manure and other organic mater from the animal pens. The run-off water, rich in organic content but also containing pathogenic bacteria, is then fed into an airtight “digester.” The digester employs the services of anaerobic bacteria to produce  methane that can be collected and burned to provide the heat needed to sterilize the spent grain for use as mushroom substrate. After the bacteria perform their magic, the pathogen-free but still nutrient-rich effluent is processed further in oxidation ponds, where algae process the rich brew via photosynthesis and flourish to produce more algal biomass. The algae, in turn, is harvested as a food for fish in an adjacent pond. Finally, the water from the algae pond, still nutrient-rich can be used to fertilize gardens and crops, thus yielding higher quality organic plant crops without resorting to synthetic fertilizers. There! I believe we have included all the five kingdoms of life (Mshigeni and Pauli, 1997). All of this information is nicely summarized by the following flow diagrams in Figures 1 and 2 from the ZERI web site (http://www.zeri.org/index.cfm?id=projectBrewery).

Fig. 1: Traditional Brewery Process Flow Diagram; Fig. 2: ZERI Brewery Process flow diagram (with permission of Gunter Pauli).

An interesting variation on the system described above was explored by ZERI trainee, Mary Appelhof (AKA Wormwoman). I was sad to learn the Mary had passed away after this article was written. Mary was associated with Sustainable Communities/ZERI-New Mexico (SCZ-NM), one of the first ZERI projects in the USA, located near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mary was a believer in worm-power! Gunter Pauli also extols the virtues of earthworms. Ms. Appelhof was implementing one of a number of ZERI projects that utilize the potential of earthworms. In her scheme, spent mushroom substrate is fed to earthworms that then transmute the mushroom mycelium into more worm biomass. The worms then become food for fish or chickens, and the re- maining substrate becomes “vermicompost,” a nutrient rich natural fertilizer and soil conditioner. The humble earthworm has yet even greater value as a source of useful enzymes. If you are the unfortunate victim of a stroke, mycelium-munching earthworms may come to your rescue! Lumbrokinase is one of the important enzymes, which is extracted from earthworms. It is a potent fibrinolytic enzyme that dissolves blood clots and is being used to treat strokes and coronary thrombosis (Mihira et al., 1991). Once again the ZERI system yields a value-added product from waste. For more on “worm power” see Mary Appelhof’s Web site at: www.wormwoman.com.

Sustainable Communities / ZERI-NM: Mushroom Projects SCZ-NM (www.scizerinm.org) is a vital and creative enterprise working under the auspices of the U.S. Forest Service Collaborative Forest Restoration Program in New Mexico. One of the SCZ-NM missions is the reduction of fire hazard in overgrown National Forests. The thinning of forests and clearing of underbrush reduces fire hazard but creates mountains of woody scrap in need of disposal. A SCZ-NM solution, along the lines described above, is to use the woody refuse as a substrate for mushrooms such as oyster or shitake mushrooms. As it turns out, even wood digested by mushrooms can be incorporated into a digestible feed for cows, sheep, bison, and as we have already noted—worms. A related SCZ-NM project, initiated by SCZ cofounder Lynda Taylor, is the establishment of a long-term New Mexico native fungal culture bank. Native fungi are being collected and maintained on agar plates. Various fungi in the bank are being tested for their ability to grow on the various species of small diameter tress (ponderosa, piñon, and juniper) and on invasive species (salt cedar, Russian olive) and other tree “wastes” that are being thinned in the process of forest restoration. The SCZ-NM forestry projects are excellent examples of what Paul Stamets calls “mycoforestry” in Mycelium Running. In fact, he devotes a whole chapter to the subject. Matching native fungi to native tree species is one of the principles of mycoforestry that Stamets emphasizes. Stamets also advocates chipping the woody debris, left over from clear cutting and thinning of forests, and inoculating those chips with fungi. He has devised an ingenious way to give the fungi a jump—mix spores into the oil used in chain saws and wood chippers. Only Paul Stamets could wax so eloquently about mycelium and woodchips:

“Mushroom mycelium is the grand demolecularizer of plant fibers (lignin and cellulose), creating soil as an end consequence. My goal is to make use of fungi’s appetite for wood chips to increase soil depth so that the soil has a greater carrying capacity for the tree successions that spring from it. I see wood chips as valuable ecological currency that should be reinvested into forest’s ecobank to enhance sustainability.” (Mycelium Running, p. 73)

Stamets discusses other practical uses of myceliated wood chips in his chapters on “mycofiltration” and “mycoremediation.” Clear cutting forests and incursions of logging roads often cause problems of erosion and loss of topsoil as a result of water run off. If depressions and roadside ditches are filled with chips and inoculated with mushroom spawn, mycelium binds the substrate into a densely bound mated network that serves to reduce erosion and silt flow. This is a promising strategy that SCZ-NM is employing in their forestry project.

One of the SCZ-NM mycological consultants is Carmenza Jaramillo López from Columbia. Ms. Lopez is conducting a project  in Chinchina, Columbia, which is in a coffee growing region. The coffee growers there are mostly low-income peasants, whose livelihoods are precarious due to volatile coffee prices. Just as in the beer making process described previously, the final product, in this case the coffee beans, represents only a small percent of the agricultural starting material. Traditionally, huge amounts of coffee waste products were simply thrown away. The Chinchina project is utilizing the considerable biomass of coffee waste as a substrate to grow Shiitake mushrooms. The Shiitake mushrooms are produced at a Biological Efficiency of an amazing 75%, and they provided an additional source of income and nutrition for the poor coffee growers. Here we have another example of the use of mushroom cultivation to reduce poverty (Jaramillo et al., 2004).

Fungi and Ecosystems

ZERI projects have amply demonstrated that “zero emissions” in many human endeavors can in fact be achieved by the judicious recycling of organic waste from one kingdom to another. Their projects are models of sustainability. We have seen how mushroom cultivation can play a role in transformation of agricultural waste into a delicious, nutritious and marketable product and as a tool for restoring and sustaining forest communities. Let us now consider sustainability on a larger perspective, namely on the level of ecosystems, and ultimately the entire planet. The importance of fungal biodiversity in sustaining ecosystems is becoming increasingly clear. We now know that 90% of all plants have symbiotic relationship with fungi via mycorrhizae. As Mycophiles we are well acquainted with the mycorrhizal relationships of many mushroom species with trees. Another class of fungi, which are invisible to the naked eye, but even more important as symbionts with plants, are the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (VAM), of which Glomus is one of the better known genera. VAMs account for a considerable amount of the fungal biodiversity in soils (Van der Heijden et al., 1998). The fungi in the soil of terrestrial ecosystems comprise a vast network of hyphae in complex relationships with many organisms including bacteria, nematodes and arthropods. This living zone is now being referred to as the “rhizosphere,” and it is absolutely essential for the well being and resiliency of the entire ecosystem (Curl, 1986). As Paul Stamets points out in a 2005 article in Resurgence Magazine: “[fungi]. . . serve as primary healing agents for land and ecosystems . . . mycelia are the great soil builders of our planet: they create habitats . . . the complexity of the fungal kingdom gives soils the ability to respond to catastrophes.” And in Audubon magazine: “Where there are catastrophes in nature, we find that the solutions are literally underfoot” (Woodsen, 2002). Paul speculates that the fungal rhizosphere is a living Internet that possesses sentience, intelligence and inherent ecological healing properties. He believes that the similarity in the decentralized, networked architecture of hyphal networks, the neural networks in our brains, and the World Wide Web is more than a coincidence. Mycelia in soils serve as a communication network within an ecosystem, sometimes over vast distances; it supports biodiversity and resiliency of the system as a whole; it builds soils; and gives habitats the ability to respond to catastrophes—natural or man-made. (See rhizosphere links at http://ic.ucsc.edu /~wxcheng/wewu/links.html.)

Fungi and the Future

As a result of our “addiction to oil,” we seem to be witnessing a man-made catastrophe in the making—global warming—which even staunchest conservatives are now taking seriously. It is clearly imperative that we focus our efforts toward the goal of a “sustainable planet.”The United Nation’s drafted the “Kyoto Protocols” in response to the impending climatic planetary catastrophe (which only the USA and Australia failed to sign). Of course, we pray that it is not too late to “save the planet.” But what if, God forbid, the worst-case scenario should occur— a thermonuclear holocaust, followed by a “nuclear winter,” and collapse of all of our planet’s ecosystems? The science of Paleontology informs us that the planet has survived much worse catastrophes. They are recorded in the fossil record as the major extinctions that mark the boundaries between major geological ages. Every schoolgirl knows about the great K-T extinction, brought on by the massive meteor impact at Chicxulub, that led to the demise of dinosaurs as well as much of the plant life on land. The greatest extinction in earth history occurred at the end of the Permian age, when 90% of all living species became extinct. The meteor impact associated with the Permian extinction has recently been discovered beneath a mile of Antarctic ice (Gorder, 2006). What is not so well known is what happened immediately after these meteor impacts. Paleontologists Vivi Vajda and Stephen McLaughlin (2004) found the answer by a careful study of the sediment layer immediately above the famous iridium layer deposited by the K-T meteor impact. When their findings hit the popular science press, the headline announcing the discovery read, “A World Ruled by Fungi” (Terra Daily; Mar. 8, 2004). What Vajda and McLaughlin found was a layer devoid of all plant life but rich in fungal hyphae and spores, the layers above the fungal one showed an orderly succession of plant life. So the story goes: after the great impact, fungi thrived on the massive amounts of dead plant material to become the dominant life form on land. It was mycelia that then prepared the way for the return of plants—new ecosystems, new niches, new adaptive radiations, and naked apes. The same pattern of fungal dominance followed by a succession of new plant life has also been found following the Permian extinction, but then it was the dinosaurs who inherited the earth (Monastersky, 1996). I hope our little paleontological digression has demonstrated the importance of the fungal kingdom in maintaining and restoring ecosystems.We can only hope for the best in our goal of achieving a sustainable planet; however, if the worst should occur, we can rest assured that fungi will rescue our planet again, perhaps even preparing a suitable habitat for future intelligent life.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the editor of Fungi Magazine, Britt Bunyard, for his encouragement and suggestions for refining this article. The visionary ideas of Gunter Pauli and Paul Stamets served as an inspiration for the writing of my article. In addition I want to thank Gunter Pauli, Linda Taylor, Craig Gilbert, Jeremy Davis, and an anonymous reader for reviewing the manuscript.

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