Could an insecticide made from mushrooms compete with commercial pesticides applied to crops the world over?
Fungus expert Paul Stamets thinks so, with a product he calls SMART pesticides. They are made from natural fungi, which kill insects and protect crops without creating toxic residue and runoff. If adopted, the mushroom pesticides would be a breath of fresh air in our increasingly toxic environment.
Pesticides can be necessary for large-scale food production, but they also have harmful effects on the natural world as well as on human health. Many of the chemicals used in commercial pesticides, like ammonia, arsenic, benzene, chlorine, dioxins, formaldehyde and glyphosate are dangerous to people even in small doses, and they show up in human bodies after consumption of conventionally-grown food.
Widespread pesticide use is also one possible culprit for the massive decline in bee populations over the last decade, as well as a persistent cause of ground and fresh water pollution.
Paul Stamets
Via: Anaka Menehune
Stamets, the groundbreaking mycologist famous for propagating a message on how mushrooms can save the world, first developed his innovative pesticide when he observed that harmful insects like carpenter ants and termites would avoid fungus spores. He then developed a modified form of fungus that didn’t produce spores, which the insects devour and share with their comrades before being killed by its entomopathogenic, or insect-killing properties.
The product is effective on 200,000 different insect species, and it’s self-perpetuating as well — after the fungus kills the ant, termite or other pest, it sprouts a mushroom from its body and distributes spores that warn other insects to stay away from the area.
Stamets first patented his all-natural insecticide in 2001, noting that: “The matrix of preconidial fungi can optionally be dried, freeze-dried, cooled and/or pelletized and packaged and reactivated for use as an effective insect attractant and/or biopesticide.” He refiled in 2003, and was finally granted his patent in 2006.
The mycologist claims that pesticide industry executives told him that his invention was the “most disruptive technology that they have ever witnessed.” Unfortunately, it still hasn’t gained much attention in the media or commercial agriculture realm. It’s not hard to see why. The natural pesticide is easy and inexpensive to produce, which means that there isn’t a lot of profit in it, while industry giants like Monsanto currently make mega-bucks from toxic pest-control strategies. Executives are not likely to give up their grip on all that money without a struggle.
And that means that we are the ones who bear the consequences. California reported 7,600 pesticide poisoning cases between 2002 and 2008, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. A 1993 report by the National Academies determined that “depending on dose, some pesticides can cause a range of adverse effects on human health, including cancer, acute and chronic injury to the nervous system, lung damage, reproductive dysfunction, and possibly dysfunction of the endocrine and immune systems.”
It’s a familiar story. Big companies profit, and human beings pay the price. A shift to more natural and organic pest-control strategies would benefit humans, animals and plants alike, and miraculous mushroom pesticides are a good place to start.
Rumor has it that Chemical company hit men have threatened his and his family’s lives, If he released a product, The truth is he has had this patent for 14 years and has not released product even though the law has given him the green light to do so and because it is patented no one else is allowed to do it, so in effect Paul Stamets came up with a brilliant idea that he is preventing from going into action, possibly with the threat on his family’s life.
That doesn’t surprise me one bit. It happens too much in today’s world: invent or discover a new technology or method, that is extremely beneficial for the environment, health etc, and then an industry swoops in, to suppress, control or eliminates the competition. It’s insanity. When will this stop?? So disheartening….. 🙁
Most current insecticides are nicotinamides. Thats right derived from nicotine and the tobacco plant. I expect insecticides derived from mushrooms to be much more toxic than current ones because many Mycotoxins are particularly carcinogenic and deadly. This doesn’t mean they won’t be effective or safe. We need new technology because all biological controls induce evolution in the thing you are controlling. Think antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and herbicide resistance in weeds for example.
glyphosate is a weed killer not a pestercide so I wouldn’t even take any notice of the garbage there if they cant get facts right to start off
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/21/glyphosate-probably-carcinogenic-pesticide-why-cities-use-it
I believe you are confusing insecticide with pesticide even though you spelled it wrong. Because glyphosate is a herbicide which is a type of pesticide. All herbicides’, insecticides’, fungicides’, and alike are considered “pesticides”. So in conclusion, a weed killer is a type of pesticide.
Weed killers don’t really kill pests so its not classed as a pesticide I use weed killers and pesticides on a daily basis so i know what I’m talking about, n my comment was posted 5 months ago so case closed
What impact will this have on individuals with mushroom allergies?
Well you have to consider the greater good. Toxic pesticides are dangerous to every human on the planet. Those allergic to mushrooms are a smaller population. Medications often have harmful side effects to some people (penicillin) but the benefit outweighs the harm overall. Should we stop producing and selling peanut products because people are allergic?
How are peanut products the same thing? We’re not spraying all of the produce with peanut based pesticides!
No, but it’s an example. Many products are produced that don’t have peanuts in them. People with peanut allergies can still have an allergic reaction simply because the product was produced in the same factory as peanut-based products. It’s about labeling. If the produce used mushroom-based pesticides, you label it as such. I don’t believe that ALL produce growing on this planet, and especially in any capitalist country, would go to a mushroom-based pesticide. In the U.S., that would be highly unlikely since that would essentially eliminate competition which is illegal here. So, those allergic to mushrooms can continue to use produce that use the old chemical-based pesticides or organic produce that doesn’t use pesticides at all. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t eliminate a healthier alternative for the majority just because the minority has an issue with it. Label it and move on!
four years later..still nothing has been created..??
I agree with the healthier alternative, in spite of the few allergies, perhaps I to have been hardened by our world attitude ie, vaccine few people may die but majority live, so it’s for the greater good, or so we are told!
I feel Paul Stamets certainly wants to do good and he could have secretly kept his knowledge applying it to his own successful gardens and sewage but chose to make it public why? It should be known! If stifled by world authorities well like the greatest good there is….the greater number, perhaps…if more stood in its defence ….requires our courage and toughness, could we not see a breakdown in controls to cause the human price?