In a recent interview on the Agroinnovations Podcast, Paul Stamets, mycologist and ecological pioneer, had this to say:

“There’s a form of biological racism, unfortunately, that I have been confronting all of my life. And, people are prejudiced against mushrooms. You say mushrooms and people think of either portobellos or magic mushrooms. But very few people have any clue that we evolved from fungi, and fungi are our ancestors.”

In his revolutionary new book, Mycelium Running, Paul gives us an example of mycophobia in action:

This issue was exemplified when a friend tried to introduce the woodlover (Hypholoma capnoides) to wood chips in a decommissioned road reclamation project in northern Arizona…a forester threatened to fight his plan plan because she incorrectly claimed that this woodlover was not native and had parasitic potential…her mycophobia clouded her rationality as this woodlover is natural resident of the forests she helps manage.

But, according to Stamets, mycophobia is not only irrational, it may also prevent us from taking serious action to mitigate the damaging effects we humans are having on our environment. Mycelium Running is not just beautifully illustrated book full of field tested methods accessible to almost anyone, it is more than that. It is nothing less than an attempt to reinvent our imagination, and to reengage humanity with an entire kingdom of our evolutionary ancestry that has been all but forgotten by contemporary civilization.

Stamets lays out in clear detail the five pillars of what he calls mycorestoration: mycofiltration, mycoforestry, mycogardening, mycopesticides, and mycoremediation. In fact, to some degree or other, we are all gardeners and foresters within the scope of our everyday lives, and the mycelium is calling us to run with it. So, pick up a copy of Mycelium Running, get your hands on some mushroom mycelium, and, as Paul says “become embedded into the mind-set of this matrix and use its connections for running with mycelium.”