By Alyson Lundstrom
More than just a cooking ingredient, they are some of the most fascinating organisms on earth.
Fungi likely made their first appearance, give or take a billion years ago, and on a much different looking planet earth.
They have evolved over time with many stunning adaptations. However, the mushroom’s reputation can be a divisive one. The conversation around fungi is often less about their powerful capabilities and more about two camps of thought where mushrooms are either; a necessary pasta sauce ingredient or a pesky lawn invader. Their nuances, radioactive characteristics, and stealthy clean-up powers often go uncelebrated.
Not today, we say. Mushrooms are meant for much more than the punny punchline to a joke. They may just be here to save planet earth.
More than just a cooking ingredient, they are some of the most fascinating organisms on earth. The superpowers of fungi are so great they could possibly be optimized to restore the balance of the planet. Some glow (Mycena haematopus), some can turn ants into zombies (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis), and others taste close enough to chicken to potentially give a lot of real chickens a sigh of relief.
Perhaps most fascinating of all is that fungi are more closely related to humans than humans are to plants. Humans have a lot to learn from fungi. Mushrooms are spectacularly resilient and helpful. They are programmed to ensure not just the survival of their own species but also those around them. This benevolent natural symbiosis just might make them the caped (or capped?) crusader the earth needs most.
Fungi Are The Swiss Army Knife of Nature
Like humans, fungi are social. These wild wonders are the originators of the forest telephone. Mycorrhizal fungi have been helping trees and plants communicate with each other through a clandestine underground network of mycelium that connects plants and trees, warning each other against insect attack, drought, and disease.
Renown mushroom researcher Paul Stamets tells us:
“Mushrooms are the grand recyclers of the planet and the vanguard species in habitat restoration.”
Beyond their ability to be top-notch communicators, fungi are also naturally capable of cleaning up the byproducts of human activity and even replacing some of the earth’s worst climate change offenders.
Here are four ways fungi might just be here to save planet earth.
1. Sustainable Packaging Material
Decades ago, research found that polystyrene in disposable packing peanuts and protective product packaging broke down in landfills and oceans into toxic micropollutants. These styrene monomers then found their way into our food and water systems.
Today, rapidly reproducing mycelium are used as binders with other organic agricultural waste materials such as corn husks and hemp to create a naturally waterproof moldable foam packaging. In addition, Ikea has taken this proof of concept to a scalable reality by integrating mushroom packaging into its shipping materials since 2018.
2. Building Materials
Concrete is second only to water as one of the most consumed resources on earth. Yet, while it has built up our modern world, cement is responsible for 8% of all CO2 emissions on earth.
Mushrooms provide a rapidly growing and malleable mycelium network that, when combined with various types of agricultural waste or wood shavings, creates a variety of building materials such as lightweight blocks, insulation, and soundproofing materials.
While fungi used as fabrication materials are still in a period of innovation, they provide a path where a building can live, grow, and biodegrade with a minimal carbon footprint. Fungi- they’ve been cleaning up after themselves for billions of years!
3. Clean Up Crew (Mycoremediation)
It turns out that mushrooms might just be the original foodies.
They’ll try anything; plastic, fossil fuels - even radiation. Fungi are innately programmed for mycoremediation, a term that translates to “restore balance.” This enables them to use their natural decomposing abilities to digest human contamination and restore environmental balance.
Mycoremediation allows them to thrive in even the most desolate environments while breaking down persistent environmental pollutants and removing toxic compounds from the earth.
In the case of oil spills, mushrooms make lemonade out of oily lemons. Petroleum is a carbon-based fossil fuel that mushrooms can actually remove, feed on, and break down into nontoxic components. Moreover, studies have shown that they cannot only remove the oil but break it down in such a way that the mushrooms themselves are still non-toxic.
Radioactive mushrooms found thriving on the grounds of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster are advancing mycoremediation research. The radioactive mushrooms were sent to the International Space Station, where they were shown to reduce radiation by 2% compared to a nonradioactive sample. A potential win to create a mycelium-based wall to protect astronauts from the radioactivity of Mars.
4. Carbon Sequestration
Natural Carbon sequestration is the ability of forests and oceans to remove and store atmospheric carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Simply put: more plants mean fewer greenhouse gasses, which means slower global warming.
Mushrooms have shown they are especially adept at removing large amounts of CO2. A recent study in Science Magazine theorizes that Mycorrhizal fungi are responsible for converting the majority of all carbon pulled from the atmosphere in the northern hemisphere, making them crucial in storing errant emissions.
While trees typically store this carbon in their needles, leaves, and moss, mushrooms can store carbon deeper into the soil through a complex mycelium system.
The Key To Survival Might Be Under Our Feet
While the tech industry is pushing innovation for sustainable solutions for the future, the answer to many of earth's pain points may just be under our feet. the natural world took care of itself quite nicely before humans came around, demanding more than their fair share of its resources.
Mushrooms have the ability to protect our space explorers, bioremediate our messes, and make our consumable experience more sustainable. Next time you're in the forest, be sure to pay your respects to the spores that just may save mankind.
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