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‘5 Ways Mushrooms Will Save The World’
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-08/5-ways-mushrooms-will-save-world
“…Mushrooms are an overlooked resource. Research into the many applications for mushrooms is just now catching some momentum. From food source to industrial material, from medicine to water filter, mushrooms are dynamic and unique.
Truffle. Birch Polypore. Portabella. Oyster. Button. Maitake. There are an estimated 1.5 million species of mushroom. What we see is only the flowering portion of the fungus. An intricate root system known as mycelium develops under the surface of the earth.
Mycelium is the weblike vegetative portion of fungi that can form an 8-mile labyrinth of cells in just one cubic inch of soil. Like humans, mycelium cells inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
Mushrooms’ rapid growth and reproduction make them a perfect picture of sustainability. Harnessing the power of these organisms can change our landscapes, our daily lives, our health and our world…
1. Heal the Environment
Scientist and inventor Paul Stamets calls mycelium “soil magicians.” Mushrooms can help to rebuild after natural disasters by filtering chemicals and pathogens out of the water system to supply drinking water for disaster relief. Habitat restoration is enhanced by rapid reproduction and cell growth as well as slowing soil erosion and offering multi-directional transfer of nutrients among plants….Not only can mushrooms prevent the environment from being polluted, but they can also help clean up the pollution that is already present.
There is a project that has successfully produced plastic consuming mushrooms. The mushrooms can break down and “eat” the plastic–though more research needs to be done to determine if it is then safe for humans to eat the mushroom. But either way, it is promising to know there is a natural organism that can start munching away the vast piles of plastic waste on earth.
According to Paul Stamets, mushrooms have the capability to filter contaminated soil and water. Fungi can clean up oil spills, and absorb toxic waste from the soil. Fungi break down and feed nutrients to plants, and can even be used as an alternative to dangerous pesticides for crops.
2. Provide Sustainable Raw Materials
Using mushrooms to create environmentally friendly everyday products can help reduce the amount of pollution.
But it can also reduce the cost, time, and effort of producing materials.
A startup company called MycoWorks produces raw materials out of fungus. They grow mushroom bricks that are stronger than concrete, fire retardant, and lightweight. They can grow a leather-like mushroom hyde in just a few weeks. It takes years to grow the same amount of leather on a cow… not to mention having to kill the cow. They have even grown furniture from mushrooms…
3. Feed the World
A mushroom by definition is a macrofungus with a distinctive fruiting body large enough to be seen with the naked eye and picked by hand. Scientists speculate that we have only identified 10% of the species of fungi on earth.
Most edible shrooms are low carbohydrate, calorie, fat, sodium, and sugar, but high in antioxidants, B vitamins, copper, and selenium. Mushrooms are one of the only non-fortified food sources of Vitamin D and the only source of vitamin D found in the produce aisle.
The many varieties of edible mushies benefit weight management plans, reduce inflammation, balance ph levels, and lower cholesterol.
Chido Govera, an entrepreneur from Zimbabwe, changed her life using mushrooms. Orphaned at the age of 8 and left to care for her 5-year-old brother and almost 100-year-old grandmother, she was abused, hungry and nearly sold as a child bride until she took a one-day class that taught her to grow and harvest mushrooms…
4. Cure Disease
Because of the overuse of antibiotics, some harmful diseases are becoming resistant to common drugs used to treat them.
But mushrooms are being used to develop treatments for drug-resistant bacteria.
“The best situation I could describe is something everyone has gone through, like a strep throat culture,” Cotter says, imagining a scenario in which an infected patient walks into the doctor’s office, gets a throat swab, and then has the swab dropped into a specially designed module containing a fungus. That fungus would then sweat metabolites into a reservoir that would be naturally calibrated to combat the patient’s illness.
Fungi can also be used to create antibiotics for “incurable” viruses, such as AIDS, the flu, and smallpox.
But what about the potential for “magic mushrooms” to sort out mental health issues?
Surprisingly, mushrooms containing the psychoactive compound psilocybin have been proven to help reduce and reset the brain for those suffering from severe depression.
One study conducted by the Imperial College of London found the brain activity in patients who previously were not responding to conventional medicines to show less depressive symptoms and longer lasting relief.
The idea is that people with depression have certain highly trafficked circuits in their brain. But while some brain activity sits in traffic, other routes go entirely unused.
Normally, information is exchanged in the brain across various circuits, or what Paul Expert, who coauthored one of the first studies to map the activity in the human brain on psilocybin, described to me as “informational highways.” On some highways, there’s a steady stream of traffic. On others, however, there are rarely more than a few cars on the road. Psychedelics appear to drive traffic to these underused highways, opening up dozens of different routes and freeing up some space along the more heavily used ones…
5. Provide a Better Understanding of Interactive Ecosystems
Mycelium, with its ability to form intricate web structures underneath the soil, allows for both mutual and parasitic relationships. Both are vital to the environment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY
The HDC (Health and Disability Commissioner) is facing increasing pressures about at times bizarre decisions by his Office, and also questions about some staff members’ conduct. In one such case the HDC has been covered for by the Ombudsmen Office, a paper trail:
OIA + Privacy Act request to the HDC:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-c11hdcxxxxx-c12hdcxxxxx-o-i-a-priv-act-rqsts-new-anon-19-10-15.pdf
The HDC Office’s response:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/hdc-c11hdcxxxxx-c12hdcxxxxx-oia-priv-act-rqsts-19-10-hdc-1st-reply-anon-17-11-15.pdf
Anonymised letters by a complained about WINZ Designated Doctor, that were part of a number of matters at issue:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/hdc-complaint-design-dr-winz-design-dr-reply-report-to-hdc-hilit-anon-20-09-12.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/hdc-complaint-design-dr-drs-ltr-to-hdc-defending-conduct-anon-hilit-22-11-2012.pdf
Also at issue was the correctness of a for years illegally withheld ‘phone log’, created by an HDC staffer, which was despite of repeated earlier requests not made available for over three years.
An anonymised scan copy of that HDC ‘phone log’ is found via the links shown here:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-complaint-wdhb-counsellor-priv-act-release-changed-ph-log-anon-09-08-2011.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-complaint-wdhb-counsellor-priv-act-release-changed-ph-log-hi-lit-09-08-11.pdf
They claimed that a number of emails sent in by a complainant were ‘freezing’ their system, and could thus not be processed!?
Despite of proof of the opposite:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-complaint-wdhb-counsellor-email-receipt-all-mails-confrmd-16-26h-08-08-11.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-complaint-wdhb-counsellor-email-thanks-f-all-mails-confrmd-hillit-16-46h-08-08-11.pdf
Further letters by the unhappy OIA and PA requester, seeking answers and explanations:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-c11hdcxxxxx-c12hdcxxxxx-complaint-abt-changed-ph-log-09-08-11-anon-24-11-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-c11hdcxxxxx-c12hdcxxxxx-complaint-abt-changed-ph-log-09-08-11-anon-ltr-15-12-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-c11hdcxxxxx-c12hdcxxxxx-complaint-abt-changed-ph-log-09-08-11-anon-new-ltr-15-02-16.pdf
Explanations by the HDC’s Legal Advisor, making no sense:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/hdc-c11hdcxxxxx-c12hdcxxxxx-oia-priv-act-rqsts-19-10-hdc-reply-19-02-16.pdf
A resulting Ombudsmen complaint:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/ombudsman-complaint-42xx2x-hdc-oia-pa-rqsts-info-withheld-ltr-anon-09-03-2016.pdf
There is much more to this story, revealing how our so called ‘watch dogs’ are doing much else, but not acting all that sincerely and seriously as such a ‘watch dog’ should be expected to act. Read the whole revealing story here:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/how-the-new-zealand-ombudsman-effectively-provides-cover-for-the-hdc-an-information-request-complaint-case/
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/how-the-n-z-ombudsman-effectively-provides-cover-for-the-hdc-report-post-28-11-17.pdf
New Zealand likes to uphold the (false) image of being a country where government, business and the people are so honest, transparent and accountable for all kinds of things.
The truth is far from that, as we saw with the meth testing scandal, as state agencies ran for cover, denied mistakes, denied all knowledge of things, and where all participated in passing the buck, endlessly. Add EQC in Christchurch, add the scandal about the ‘Dotcom Mansion Raid’, add so many stories like the leaky building scandal, health system failures, tax evasion (Panama Papers).
Even our ‘watch dogs’ are not that honest, it seems.
From every account I have heard the HDC needs an overhaul, or needs to be completely done away with. It is not fit for purpose. It does NOT represent the rights of health consumers …quite the reverse…it is a brazen COVER UP agency.
“Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights. The Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights (the Code) establishes the rights of consumers, and the obligations and duties of providers to comply with the Code. It is a regulation under the Health and Disability Commissioner Act.”
There urgently needs to be a Commission of Inquiry into the Health and Disability Commission
Your sources are correct, an example of appalling complaints handling:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/how-the-n-z-health-and-disability-commissioner-let-off-a-biased-designated-doctor/
But as even the Ombudsmen’s Office is not keen on dealing with such matters, and as the former Speaker did all to avoid looking into the situation at an underfunded and overworked Ombudsmen Office in 2015, there seems to be little will and chance for any investigation or greater review to happen any time soon:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/speaker-of-parliament-complaint-abt-ombudsman-hdc-complt-handling-anon-xx-05-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/speaker-house-of-repr-complaint-abt-ombudsman-office-reply-anon-25-08-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/speaker-house-of-repr-complaint-abt-ombudsman-office-reply-anon-hilit-25-08-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/speaker-of-parliament-complaint-abt-ombudsman-rqst-f-inquiry-reply-to-dec-anon-05-09-15.pdf
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