Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

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The structure of the chapters, which often move from hyper-detailed analysis of a trial to unsubstantiated speculations on what could be possible in future. The speculation isn't in itself always a problem, but being intermixed with such detail often gives it more weight than it deserves.

Growing Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms ★ The Mushroom Cultivator ★ Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World ★ Mycelium Running ★ From Bears & Trees to Mushrooms & Bees ★ From a purely scientific perspective, I enjoyed what this book had to offer. From a literary perspective, however, I ran into some serious stylistic problems. This book, from my understanding, is scientific literature meant for the general public, to pique their interest in mycology and hopefully spur more dialogue about its importance. But such scientific literature has a threefold job - it has to be accessible, persuasive, and authoritative all at once. It can't bog down the reader with excess terminology, nor can it dumb things down too much or become overzealous; otherwise it loses credibility. I hate to say it, but Mycelium Running falls into the latter categories. The first 1/3 suffers from these common science-writing traps, while the rest read better though still with occasional flaws. Overall, this book could have been better written, edited, and organized. But to be fair I'll review it separately on what I did and didn't like. The overall impression and story that Stamets tells about fungi, mycelium and the role they have to play in the world. I drink a lot of coffee. So that means a lot of coffee grounds accumulate in my compost, and a few months ago I looked at that and wondered if it could be used to grow mushrooms. This is the first book to give the Kingdom of the Fungi its proper place in the scheme of things. It is the most important book on nature that I’ve seen in years.”Stamets was the recipient of the "Bioneers Award" from The Collective Heritage Institute in 1998,[4] as well as the "Founder of a New Northwest Award" from the Pacific Rim Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils in 1999. He was also named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" in their November–December 2008 issue. In February 2010, Paul received the President's Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration: Northwest Chapter, in recognition of his contributions to Ecological Restoration. His work was featured in the documentary film The 11th Hour.[5] He has also been featured in the eco-documentary films Dirt (film)[6] and 2012, Time for a Change (film).[7]

Various fun facts about gourmet, medicinal and toxic mushrooms. These were enjoyable, along with the anecdotes and studies behind these findings. I won't be attempting truffle or chanterelle cultivation anytime soon, but I appreciated the warning that our regular button mushrooms should be sourced responsibly, since they can take up dangerous levels of heavy metals depending on their origin. Solid overview of fungi's ecological potential - from repairing deforestation to cleaning up toxic/radioactive waste to even fighting insect pests, this was probably my favorite part of the book. These are important and timely findings, and should be more popular than they currently are. More support for determining what mushrooms are native to your area or could be cultivated outdoors in your climate--maybe a world map with annotations? This is a concern for those of us in the arid southwest with less organic content in soils, bacteria-dominant carbon cycles, and not much of a cold season. However! If I someday have a home in a mountain forest (as I often fantasize), I would definitely try to cultivate multiple mushrooms in various contexts, mostly in food production and soil improvement. Maybe some magic stuff, too?The first half of the book also left me curious about patent law as it applies to living organisms and how Stamets and others operate in this space. Mycelium Running is a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet. That’s right: growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment, and in this groundbreaking text from mushroom expert Paul Stamets, you’ll find out how. The basic science goes like this: Microscopic cells called “mycelium”–the fruit of which are mushrooms–recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris in the creation of rich new soil. What Stamets has discovered is that we can capitalize on mycelium’s digestive power and target it to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants (mycoremediation), catch and reduce silt from streambeds and pathogens from agricultural watersheds (mycofiltration), control insect populations (mycopesticides), and generally enhance the health of our forests and gardens (mycoforestry and myco-gardening). Although I do not agree 100% with some of his premises, his approach seems new and enriching to me. Prototaxites, a giant fungus dotting the landscapes of Earth and was the tallest organism on land 420 million years ago

The Fermentation Edition at Why is this interesting? brought up an twist that I wanted to add in here. Clear introduction to the major groups of fungi - saprophytic, endophytic, and parasitic, as well as brown rot vs white rot. I also liked that he went over general fungal structure and life cycles, which is important for understanding the rest of the book. Made the mistake of trying to take on Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms first. This is way more accessible as a reference-- more like a high school textbook. In Mycelium Running (Ten Speed Press 2005), Stamets explores the use and applications of fungi in bioremediation—a practice called mycoremediation. Stamets details methods of termite and ant control using nontoxic mycelia, and describes how certain fungi may be able to neutralize anthrax, nerve gas, and smallpox. [1] [2] He includes the following with regard to the mycelium:But the woo was dispensed with as the author dove into the details and the science, and it was incredibly informative. Actually, too informative, but given that I live in a smallish urban apartment, that threshold is actually very low. Stamets' detailed accounts of his own experiments and discoveries, and the broad possibilities these could create for the future of forestry, food and generally looking after the natural world.