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Friday, May 25, 2012
THE MUSHROOM SOLUTION
This is a grass roots call to action in response to the BP oil disaster. This may only be relevant to coastal communities at the moment, but as the ongoing event unfurls, the effects will be evident further and further inland.
There is a natural, clean, economic and efficient method to at least start recovering from this horror. The technique is called mycoremediation, which uses mycelium, the vegetative part of a fungus, to break down contaminants. The process has two stages, the first stage involves the collecting and packaging of hair, straw, grasses and other substrate material to create an absorbent material matrix. This "sucks the oil up" in a package that can then be removed from the site and be treated. The second stage consist of inoculating the pre-contaminated material with Oyster Mushroom Mycelia which have the ability to break down the absorbed oil and other contaminates into harmless fungal sugars. Additionally the mushrooms do not retain the material in their cell structure and are therefore a viable* food source.
* Further testing needed to verify safety.
What we know:
1) [Update] We now know that one of our strains of Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) is tolerant to saltwater exposure. The mycelium fully colonizes salt water soaked straw. Salinity levels will be disclosed in the near future.
2) Straw that has been inoculated with Oyster mushroom mycelium floats, making it a potential candidate for use in water-borne mycelial containment/filtration systems.
YOU CAN HELP!
The most important thing YOU can do is educate yourself and your community about this method and start gathering the raw materials needed. Not to donate to some organization in hopes that it will stop the effects of this disaster from reaching you... But to stockpile and utilize WHEN the effects do rear their ugly head in and around your community.
WHAT TO GOOGLE: Mycoremediation, Bioremediation, Paul Stamets
WHAT TO ACQUIRE THROUGH COMMUNITY AWARENESS:
*Hair, dry straw or grasses
*A loom or packaging medium such as burlap, nylons, tight netting, etc.
* Oyster Mushroom Spores (there are other species that have this abilty: shiitakes, portabellas, criminis, whites, morels).
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