I just finished reading Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms can Help Save the World by Paul Stamets, the mushroom guy. This book is written basically as a textbook, but the information in here is pretty fascinating, so it held my interest throughout the book. (disclaimer: I did skip out on the 100-page section that discusses each mushroom variety in detail. I didn't think that information would be particularly useful to me at this time).
The premis of this book is to talk about how important mushrooms are to ecosystems and how they can potentially influence the future of the world! Seriously!
Here are some of the amazing things that mushrooms can do for us:
1. Help restore and protect habitats
2. Filter pollutants out of water
3. Pull toxins and heavy metals out of ecosystems (to clean up chemically polluted sites)
4. Act as a natural pesticide with no harmful side effects
5. Provide nutrients and medicine for human use
6. Improve growth of neighboring plants in garden settings
This book also talks about cultivating your own mushrooms and gives fairly detailed instructions for doing so.
As someone who has pursued science for a living, I found this book fascinating and I have an entirely new appreciation for mushrooms. Those of you who mainly read fiction may not find this book as entertaining, but you can still hear what Paul Stamets as to say on Ted.com. Mushrooms are amazing and I encourage you all to learn more about what they can do for you! Pin It Now!
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