The Future are Fungi
Sustainability & Restoration
“The activities of mycelium help to heal and steer ecosystems on their evolutionary path, acting as a recycling mechanism to nourish other members of the ecological communities. By cycling nutrients through the food chain, mycelial networks benefit the soil and allow surrounding networks of plants and animals to survive and thrive. Without fungi - without mycelium - all ecosystems would fail.”
-Paul Stamets
Mission
Our community mushroom projects have huge potential to deliver direct reduction in Carbon emissions by creating renewable forest gardens with native fungi and plants. Community mushroom farming can shift from sustainable to regenerative, restorative agriculture rejuvenating the soil and all ecosystems that rely on it. Mushroom farming together with mycovermicomposting, not only prevents erosion and soil degradation but also keeps carbon safely stored in the soil. It increases plant diversity and integrates livestock, creating a holistic system powered by elements in the environment working together, filtering the soil and encouraging plants to grow and saving pollinations.
Cultivating mushrooms is a natural way to recycle organic materials, such as cardboard, spent coffee grounds, old cotton clothing, tea bags, egg cartons, leaves, twigs, fallen branches. Spent mushroom substrate is an amazing food for worms, creating healthy soil and plants. Plants cooperate with fungi, responsible for converting dead matter into nutritious living soil.
Carbon Friendly
Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas along with methane and nitrous oxide responsible for raising global temperatures. Removing excess amounts from the atmosphere is crucial for the restoration of the planet. Along with forests and oceans, the soil beneath us acts as a natural carbon sink, absorbing and storing CO2 from the atmosphere. Mushrooms play very important role in this process. Trees pull carbon from the atmosphere, which is then taken up by fungal networks to be stored in the soil and used as food to help mushrooms grow. Agriculture accounted for 15% of Scotland's total emissions in 2018. Thanks to symbiotic fungi, 70% more carbon can be stored in the soil and processed by fungi. 90% of plants rely on mutual relationships with fungi. A 19-year study show 13% increase in soil carbon content using organic compost. Our project helps to cut carbon footprint and reducing global warming.
Friends of Bees
Around 75% of crops depend on animal pollinators such as bees to propagate, and more than 250,000 species of flowering plants rely on bees for pollination. More than 30% of beekeepers have seen a dramatic loss of bee colonies. Scientists have discovered a mushroom extract that could save bee populations from being killed off by deadly viruses. Through regenerative agriculture, we can restore ecosystems by nurturing the symbiotic relationships between soil, fungi, plant and animal kingdom, we could be one step closer to restoring health of the planet.
“The activities of mycelium help to heal and steer ecosystems on their evolutionary path, acting as a recycling mechanism to nourish other members of the ecological communities. By cycling nutrients through the food chain, mycelial networks benefit the soil and allow surrounding networks of plants and animals to survive and thrive.
Without fungi - without mycelium - all ecosystems would fail.”-Paul Stamets