Deborah Bakker, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives pavilion, EXPO 2000

Deborah Bakker is currently working at the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) pavilion at EXPO 2000, the World's Fair in Hannover, Germany. Previously she worked for the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Originally hailing from Ottawa, she currently calls Winnipeg, Manitoba, home.

Today was supposed to be my day off, a day to be spent sleeping, exploring Hannover, and catching up on long-lapsed correspondence home. Would that it were so easy. To all my friends and family who I told I would write -- my apologies.

My plans were foiled by what's turning out to be one of the busiest weeks here at the ZERI pavilion and at the EXPO. Don't Germans work? To my chagrin, I missed Michael McBride's presentation on the first eco-brewery in Canada, but I was filled in later in the day.

Michael was inspired to start his do-it-yourself degree in mycology and beer after attending a ZERI meeting in Namibia in 1996, where he came to the conclusion that if mushrooms could be grown on beer waste in the desert in Namibia, it could be done in Newfoundland. He now cultivates high-priced oyster and shiitake mushrooms on spent grain from his Stormbrewing Brewery outside of St. John's, Newfoundland.

Conventional brewing processes use about 20 liters of water for every liter of beer brewed, and produce about 18.5 kilograms of malted barley (or other grain) as waste. Only 8 percent of barley is typically used in the brewing process; the remaining grain has high amounts of lignin cellulose fiber and protein, and, although it is often fed directly to cattle, it's actually difficult for ruminants to digest.

A solution? Mushrooms. Through years of experience, ZERI researchers -- in particular professor George Chan -- have developed a way to break down the lignin cellulose, making it easier for cattle to digest and creating economic value at the same time. Some projects -- which are spread around the world from Fiji to Columbia, from Namibia to Mauritius -- grow shiitake mushrooms, already a $2.4 billion industry worldwide, but you can also cultivate oyster mushrooms, reishi, or any number of valuable fungi. In fact a common thread among ZERI projects is to use mushrooms to transform conventional organic waste into more valuable products -- from economic, social, and environmental perspectives.

I'm never going to look at boring button mushrooms in the grocery store in the same way. One of the guides here is a very knowledgeable mycologist from Brazil, and the other night I flipped through the catalogue of a mushroom supply company based in Olympia, Wash., Fungi Perfecti. Definitely a place I'll visit when I'm back in that part of the world.

But these systems I'm describing aren't simple linear ones. And that's the beauty of them. They're diverse, incredibly complex, and consist of many different parts, just like natural systems. The brewery in Namibia is akin to an ecosystem -- chickens are raised, eight different varieties of fish are grown in wastewater treatment ponds, and protein-rich algae are grown in ponds and harvested (remember this the next time you're see bottles of green drinks in a natural foods store or spot an ad extolling the vigor-inducing properties of spirulina).

When I think of these projects, I'm continually reminded that economies and ecological systems both need complexity and proper scale to be resilient and sustainable.

Some of the rest of the day is taken up by minutiae, socializing, and writing. Lunch is served and we congregate outside on the gravel beside the Sri Lanka pavilion. I learn a few more words of Spanish and we make plans for a tour of the Canadian pavilion on Friday and a party at the pavilion later that night.

There's a completely different air at the ZERI pavilion than at other pavilions. Part of it is our small size, but it might also be because much of the day is spent in the open air, if not directly outside, or because of the big mural of humpback whales that we can see when we walk around, or because of the closeness and warmth of the staff. The cold and rain remind me of the west coast at home, and I complain sometimes, but on warmer sunny autumn days it's wonderful.

Later in the afternoon a group of us leaves to visit an ecological community near the EXPO site. I'm amazed at the impeccable neatness of the farm. Never having been on a European farm, I'm not sure if it is geography or culture that is the reason for this. Human waste is treated with an onsite wetland, and waste from pigs and chickens and cows as well as waste from the slaughterhouse goes to a digester where it is decomposed anaerobically, producing the methane gas that provides the energy for the complex, where about 15 people live. When I learn that it's an example built expressly for the EXPO, I'm not surprised at the spanking new feel to everything.

The sunset is phenomenal. We look to the east, where three Danish-designed windmills form a perfectly composed scene lined up against the light blue sky and pale flat fields. We pause at the top of a grassy knoll created as a sound barrier against the freeway that abuts the complex. It's great to hear wind and grass again, since the background noise at the pavilion is pounding Euro-techno from neighboring pavilions and voices speaking in languages I don't completely understand. Then the group of us heads back inside to test the beer brewed on site and back to the pavilion for our ride home.

Another educational seminar tomorrow morning should mean an early night, always an effort here since the company is so great.