Dear Paul, You Still Look Great…

…and you sound better than ever as well. Yes, I caught part of your address to the 17th Annual Bioneers Conference audience at The Weather Channel’s One Degree site. You were stunning. Yes, I’ll be sure to tell my readers to view your appearance in the video at that site, entitled, “Science Gets Back to Nature,” as well.

But, I wanted to tell you that I remember a Paul a decade ago who was pushing a new book at the Telluride Mushroom Festival and who was somewhat discontent about his progress in educating the world about mushrooms. Look at you now – although you’re still wearing the same clothes (an edible hat made of dried mushroom fibers, round wire-rimmed glasses, jeans), you have a blaze in your eyes that can be attributed to an audience that finally listens to you (even if they don’t always understand you).

Of course, some of this success can be attributed to the 11 patents that you hold on various technologies that scrub PCBs from dirty rivers, digest petroleum products in hills of mud and banish termites and carpenter ants from buildings forever, without the need for even a trace of chemical pesticide. And, you now consult with the National Institutes of Health on cancer treatments and with researchers in San Francisco on AIDS treatments. Even more, when best-selling author Michael Pollan refers to mushrooms in his own fiery talk at Bioneers on food supply and farming — fungi are essential players in the creation of soil — he refers to them as “Paul Stamets’ friends.”

Now – if only the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) will approve you newest patent for metarhizium, which the EPA recommends in one form for killing the mite that is decimating our domestic bee population. Your patent could accomplish more for one dollar than a billion-dollar pesticide industry could in a million years – if at all. If this industry can be coaxed into approving your patent, you might become a favorite write-in for president in 2008.

No? You don’t want that? You would rather that we check out the The Collective Heritage Institute, aka Bioneers instead? I’ll be sure to pass that on, Paul. I’m sure my readers would be interested in a forum that connects the environment, health, social justice, and spirit within a broad progressive framework.

Talk to you later, Paul. Keep up the great work!

Read more recent news about Stamets at: A Good Spore, The Bioneers: Green conviction ahead of curve; and Conventional Wisdom.