[Ccpg] SAT Feb 13/How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World with Paul Stamets

Fri Feb 12 20:58:26 PST 2010

Santa Barbara City College Center for Sustainability &
  Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
presents:
~Mycelium Running~
How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
with Paul Stamets

Saturday, February 13, 2010
Fe Bland Auditorium, Santa Barbara City College West Campus
  7-9:30 pm,  Admission $20 (SBCC students$10)

	 P aul Stamets believes growing mushrooms 
may be the best thing we can do to save the 
environment. A dedicated mycologist for more than 
thirty years, Stamets notes that humans, although 
adept at inventing toxins, are equally inept at 
removing them from our environment.  He believes 
mushrooms can save the world.

	 In a rare appearance on the South Coast, 
Paul Stamets will give an evening talk on 
Saturday, February 13, at 7pm, hosted by the SBCC 
Center for Sustainability, at the Fe Bland 
Auditorium, SBCC West Campus. Stamets will share 
how he feels a mycological rescue of the planet 
can occur with the help of fungi.  Mycelium, 
filaments of microscopic cells---of which 
mushrooms are the fruit---recycle carbon, 
nitrogen and other essential elements as they 
break down plant and animal debris.  What Stamets 
has discovered is that the enzymes and acids that 
mycelium produce to decompose this debris, are 
also superb at breaking apart hydrocarbons, the 
base structure common to many pollutants. 
Stamets coined the word ‘myco-restoration’, to 
describe engaging mycelium to heal habitats and 
stabilize ecosystems. He believes that mycelium 
are the neurological network of nature, and that 
without fungi, all ecosystems would fail. 

	 M ost think of mushrooms only in terms 
of edibles like Portabellos or Chantrelles, but 
the part fungi plays in the evolution of the 
planet is extraordinary.  Stamets states that 
when the Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago and 
coalesced out of stardust, organisms first 
appeared in the ocean.  The very first organisms 
on land were fungi.  Earth's ongoing history 
included asteroid impacts, with loss sometimes of 
90% of plant  and animal life due to debris dust 
blotting out the sun.  But fungi, without the 
need for sunlight, survived, and so did animals 
and plants that formed relationships with them.

	Paul Stamets has been a mushroom 
enthusiast since the late 1970s, and is the 
founder of Fungi Perfecti (www.fungi.com). He has 
discovered four new species of mushrooms, and 
pioneered countless techniques in the field of 
edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation. He 
received the 1998 "Bioneers Award" from The 
Collective Heritage Institute, and the 1999 
"Founder of a New Northwest Award" from the 
Pacific Rim Association of Resource Conservation 
and Development Councils. In 2008, Paul received 
the National Geographic Adventure Magazine's 
Green-Novator and the Argosy Foundation's 
E-chievement Awards. He was also named one of 
Utne Reader's 
"<http://www.utne.com/2008-11-13/50-Visionaries-Who-Are-Changing-Your-World.aspx>50 
Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" in their 
November–December 2008 issue. He has written six 
books on mushroom cultivation, use and 
identification, his latest book is Mycelium 
Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. 
He has been a presenter at the prestigious TED 
conference.

The event takes place on Saturday, February 13, 
7-9:30pm at the Fe Bland Forum auditorium, SBCC 
West Campus, 721 Cliff Drive. Admission $20 ($10 
SBCC Students), no reservations, first come 
basis.  The event is sponsored by the SBCC Center 
for Sustainability and the Santa Barbara 
Permaculture Network Non-Profit. For more 
information, (805) 965-0581, ext. 2177; 
msbushman at sbcc.edu.

***YouTube: Paul Stamets at TED Conference
   http://www.youtube.com/paulstamets#p/u/3/WuF4s-0-0Gs

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