 
Click image to order!
|
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help
Save the World
by Dr. Markho Rafael
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
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.
Added perks when using mycofiltration is that the beds also yield crops of
scrumptious food mushrooms, and every 2-3 years, as the bedding material needs to be
replaced, the old material can be spread on the farm fields as a rich fertilizer.
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.
For forestry, not only do saprophytic fungi help break down and recycle organic matter.
They also help combat many parasitic fungi (blights) that may kill large numbers of trees.
Stamets gives useful suggestions on how to seed beneficial saprophytic fungi in blight
infested forests as a natural "fungicide," fighting fire with fire, so to speak.
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.
Most plants form symbiotic relationships with mushrooms. The mushroom mycelium more
effectively absorbs water and nutrients, exchanged with trees for sugars, making the trees
healthier and more drought resistant. Mycorrhizal fungi also provide trees with natural
antibiotics against pathogens.
Mycoremediation is a term invented by the author of Mycelium Running,
Paul Stamets, which is now in common use among mycologists. It refers to a method whereby
toxic waste may neutralized through the use of mushrooms.
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.
More Book Reviews
Please visit
our sponsors via ads!
|
