It seems that there are new mycelium products appearing on the market almost daily. Each of these product lines touch a major source of human emission and worldwide impact. We see the same opportunity with the leather-like textile we developed as well as our work in creating the world’s first whole-cut, plant-based meats-starting with Atlast Bacon. It’s not just about carbon dioxide it’s about toxicity reduction for the planet. That is the common good we’re going after. If our Mushroom® Packaging ends up in the ocean, it’s fish food. It’s predicted that by 2030 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. I was fortunate to have a mentor and first investor, Burt Swersey, who pushed me to take the leap and start Ecovative. Now the world is waking up. Back in 2007, when Ecovative was founded, climate change and environmentalism were something only the counterculture was talking about. Then I started asking: What if we looked at this organism, not as only a food source, but as a material? This was a pretty crazy idea, both in terms of the approach and problem we were addressing. We’ve used it as food (mushrooms) for hundreds, thousands of years. This brought me to reflection on the different living systems I had worked with and ultimately to an under-recognized sub category of fungi: mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. I wanted to devote my time on spaceship earth to using technology (untapped natural technology) to help humans live happier, healthier lives in harmony with our planet.Nature (trees, plants, animals, bacteria, yeast), not machines, is the greatest technology in the world.I had no idea how unsustainable the rest of the world was. I really missed living in concert with nature.I went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to study mechanical engineering, and within a year of arriving, had three life-changing realizations: I grew up farming in Central Vermont-pigs, chickens, forest products, maple syrup, big garden living off-grid and off the land. I was really into technology-jet engines, computers, nanobots, and wanted to get off the farm. What drew you to this work? Tell us a bit about Ecovative’s inception. I am so looking forward to the launch of Ecovative and Atlast’s latest innovations. McGuire’s one word for Ben will no longer be “plastics,” rather “mushrooms.” As this profile comes out, I am at Post Ranch in Big Sur for a mycelium retreat with Louie Schwartzberg, director/producer of Fantastic Fungi, and Paul Stamets, a pioneer of the mycoverse and its many amazing attributes to heal ourselves and the planet. If ever there’s a remake of The Graduate, Mr. And there are more applications in the works. Their Atlast Bacon is expected to launch within the next year MycoFlex in which, as the name suggests, flexible mycelium provides sustainable alternatives to everything from plastics to leather and MycoComposite in which the mycelium serves as biodegradable packing material. Ecovative has currently developed three platforms around it: Atlast Food Co (Ecovative’s spin-off company) in which the structure of mycelium serves as “edible scaffolding” for meat replacement. Mycelium is the root structure of mushrooms and, as it turns out, is a wondrous and versatile product. Rather than being reliant on petroleum, these products use local feedstock from crop waste such as seed husks and woody biomass (which means the material can be grown anywhere and is 100% compostable). Tired of the amount of plastic piling up around the planet as well as the treatment of farm animals, Eben Bayer, CEO and co-founder of Ecovative Design, began growing mycelium.
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