The best-selling book on “popular mycology,” Mycelium Running, would be a useful reference book in every home, especially to anyone involved in farming (or gardening), forest management and environmental cleanup. The second half of the book is an instruction manual on growing delectable mushrooms for food and medicine.

Mycelium Running is filled to the brim with useful tips on things such as using mushrooms to improve soils and boost productivity in forestry and farming (gardening) with decreased use of expensive fertilizers and pesticides; filtering waste-water (mycofiltration); and clean up toxic waste from the land (mycoremediation).

As an example, a method for building a mycofiltration bed to filter waste water is described in exacting detail. Dimensions, depth, layers and recommended materials and mushrooms are listed. This mycofiltration is useful, among other things, for filtering manure enriched farm runoff.

An added benefit of using mycofiltration beds on farms include the production of delicious food mushrooms, which sprout out of these beds. And every 2-3 years, the material in the bed can be dug out and used as a rich fertilizer on the fields of the farm.

Another piece of useful information for farmers and gardeners found in Mycelium Running concerns the no-till farming method as opposed to the conventional method of plowing the fields after harvest. No-till farming helps promote saprophytic fungi (decomposing fungi), which break down organic material at a pace better suited to plant-life than the rapid and heat producing breakdown by anaerobic bacteria, which are the primary decomposers when stubble is plowed under. The mycelium of saprophytic fungi also binds the soil to prevent erosion and loss of valuable nutrients.

For forestry, not only do saprophytic fungi help break down and recycle organic matter. They also help combat many parasitic fungi (blights) that may kill large numbers of trees. Stamets gives useful suggestions on how to seed beneficial saprophytic fungi in blight infested forests as a natural “fungicide,” fighting fire with fire, so to speak.

The symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi can also be seeded in forests to promote healthy trees. Or they can be protected and naturally promoted through wise and informed forest management.

Most plants benefit from partnerships with mycorrhizal fungi, especially trees, which become much more drought resistant as well as disease resistant when they partner with a mycorrhizal mushroom species.

Another cutting edge technology in Mycelium Running is Mycoremediation, the neutralization of toxins through the use of mushroom mycelium. The term Mycoremediation was coined by Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running, but was already in common use among mycologists before publication.

Contaminants that may be effectively mycoremediated include, but are not limited to, heavy metals, pathological bacteria (such as E. coli), petrochemicals, neurotoxins, dioxin, toxic dyes and other toxic industrial waste.

Mycoremediation is extremely economical, at less than 5% the cost of some conventional methods for cleaning up toxic waste.

This plethora of information is merely the first half of this 300-page tome. Part III, which makes up the second half of the book, is an instruction manual on how to cultivate your own mushroom mycelium, which can be used for the above listed purposes, or to grow your own medicinal or culinary mushrooms. And seriously, who doesn’t love gourmet mushrooms? In other words, this is a reference book for every household.

Dr. Markho Rafael has worked in natural health since finishing Chiropractic College in the mid-90′s. He currently specializes in medicinal fungi, frequently consulting two reference books: Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets for medicinal, biological and chemical properties of mushrooms, and Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora, the most comprehensive identification guide of American mushrooms.