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Justin Lowell-Bellew

Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs to a linguist/artist mother and a successful entrepreneur father who co-founded and sold The Great Frame Up franchise to Deck The Walls, Justin graduated Cum Laude Wabash College, majored in Psychology (double-minor in French and Economics) and participated in the Malcolm X Institute for Black Studies, the Student Senate, French Club, and Wabash's Division III baseball team. During this time, he also developed a multilevel marketing business: Excel Communications, later purchased by Canadian Teleglobe.

Justin spent a semester and summer in France during his Junior year. This time was spent studying in Tours (Institut de Touraine) and Grenoble (Boston University program CUEF, Universite Stendhal). A common thread through the two stages culminated in an independent study project on Cognac, France.

Directly after earning his degree, he moved to Boston to work for KLD Research & Analytics. He built their book of business more than 20 percent during over the 2 1/2 years he worked for the leading Socially Responsible Investment Research firm, exceeding sales targets every quarter for 8 consecutive quarters of direct responsibility and quotas. This now represents 40% given the recent loss of long time client Domini Social Investments. During his several years in Boston, he also managed all aspects of a multi-unit dwelling in the suburbs.

Encouraged and inspired by his success and the opportunities of social enterprise, he moved on to co-found Mana Threads, LLC. A major driver behind the transition was his desire to make a direct impact, rather than observe from the sidelines.

He currently serves on the board of Grass Commons and is developing Mana Mushrooms, a context-appropriate iteration of the principles espoused by Mana Threads, LLC.

Since founding Mana Threads, Justin has also taken up surfing. While in Brasil, he also participated briefly in SOS Itacare, an organization then focused on sustainable development of the region. He has also taken a Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives course and read voraciously to continue his own independent education. Some of this reading and Mana Mushrooms itself has been inspired in part by courses taken with Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti. He also spent several weeks in New Orleans as an apprentice carpenter, plumber, and electrician.

August 2007 update

Tue, 2007-08-28 23:25 — Justin

Around May I disappeared off the face of the map in Boston and reappeared in Chicago. Since then, I've been busy organizing my life and setting up for the next stage of Mana Mushrooms: more tinkering. Most of this is happening in my garage, which I've retrofitted to be a lab space.

I have had two mushroom cultivators visit and give their stamps of approval and other input: Carmenza Jaramillo and Eric Rose. Carmenza works with a womens' cooperative in Colombia, and seeks markets in the US to distribute their fresh shiitake and oyster mushrooms. She and I discussed the possibilities and have moved a few steps closer to making this a reality for her. My goal is to match her with distributors here in Chicago and manage the relationship during the initial stages, provided the whole process can be carbon neutral or better. Their process is already a leapfrog improvement on traditional cultivation methods: they use spent coffee wastes from an adjacent dehydrated coffee manufacturer.

I work a couple days each week for Eric, who hails from Burlington, WI, where he has a wonderful farm: http://www.rivervalleykitchens.com. Among his other crops, he grows portabellas, cremini, white buttons, oysters, and shiitakes. In additon to the 2 markets I work for him, he maintains a presence at 25 others! In addition to learning about the utilization of other wastes and the closed-loop CIP cultivation process, Eric has also expressed interest in pursuing some of the co-planting strategies outlined in Paul Stamets' Mycelium Running.

Both of these people are doing great things and I look forward to helping their continued success.

Part of that effort will be continuing the research I began in Boston. Goose Island has agreed to provide me with sample waste byproduct fluids and spent grain and we continue to enjoy the support of an established relationship with PMOR - Thanks, David!

I know I've been quiet for a while... that's all changing. I will continue to blog here about Mana Mushrooms-related activity and about other stuff at http://www.2people.org. I also continue to work onhttp://www.lowellbellew.com and dot org. Thanks for your patience to those of you who have been waiting for news!

Last night I finished framing out two cultivation rooms in the garage. I'm excited and making great progress. Come along for the ride!!

CPF&A
Justin

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