Humongous fungus among us: From meds to garden sheds, mushrooms aren’t just for dinner anymore
budding shiitake – photo by frankenstoen (source: wikimedia commons)
Besides being good eating, various varieties of fungi have practical uses in the fields of medicine and agricultural pest control, bioremediation (decontamination of soil) and even the production of biological laundry detergents. Now add building materials to that list. According to a piece in Time Magazine, a California organic farm called Far West Fungi is growing industrial strength building material from the roots – called mycelium – of several types of mushroom species. Apparently mushrooms make great bricks, which may eventually be used for building structures like eco-friendly houses.
Mycelium doesn’t taste very good, but once it’s dried, it has some remarkable properties. It’s nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It’s also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete.
–Time Magazine
Other uses for mycelium include home insulation and as a lightweight packing material – an ecological alternative to Styrofoam (polystyrene) called Ecocradle, which can subsequently be used as garden mulch. Similar to the project at Far West Fungi, a New York Stated-based company called Ecovative makes Ecocradle into a ‘woodlike equivalent to plastic’ from mushrooms that feed on agricultural waste.
Besides eco-friendly industrial materials, fungi already have a wealth of medicinal and pharmaceutical applications including the production of crucial antibiotics like penicillin and cholesterol-lowering drugs. The giggle-inducingly named shiitake mushroom is not only delicious, but also used in the treatment of cancer in Japan and other countries.
Agarikon – a massive, endangered prehistoric mushroom – may prove beneficial in fighting drug resistant strains of tuberculosis, smallpox and flu viruses including the feared bird flu. A recent article in Mother Jones profiles mycologist, environmentalist and owner of the Olympia, Washington-based mushroom mecca Fungi Perfecti Paul Stamets. Stamets has uncovered a multitude of potential benefits of his fungal friends:
His tinkering has yielded many surprising discoveries about mushrooms and mycelium, the cobweblike, often hidden network of cells that spawns them. He’s demonstrated that oyster mushroom mycelium can more effectively restore soils polluted by oil and gasoline than conventional treatments can; in one eight-week experiment, the fungus broke down 95 percent of the hydrocarbons in a diesel-soaked patch of dirt. He’s used sacks of woodchips inoculated with oyster mycelium as filters to protect river habitats from pollutants such as farm runoff contaminated with coliform bacteria. Recently, he proved that cellulosic ethanol could be produced with sugars extracted from decomposing fungi.
–Mother Jones
It seems that the fungus kingdom potentially does just about everything from providing food and shelter to curing disease and healing the environment. Not bad for the humble mushroom.
by Graham Land
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Graham Land grew up in Washington, D.C., where he was part of the local hardcore punk scene. Through this unique musical movement he became involved in grass roots anti-racist activism, animal rights and Ecology. Since 2000 Graham has lived in Europe, earning an MA in history from Malmö University in Sweden and working as a musician, English teacher, sports therapist, customer service agent and writer. Graham has a podcast with author Saci Lloyd and is currently pretending to work on his first novel.
Tags: building, eco-friendly, fungi, fungus, material, Mother Jones, mushroom, mycelium, shiitake, Stamets, Time Magazine
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