On a mission to build a healthier world by harnessing the natural power of mushrooms, Host Defense combines centuries of wisdom with modern research and innovation to make the most of these functional foods. Along with supporting human and environmental health, they also created the Give Bees a Chance program to support research for healthy bee colonies.

Host Defense was built on the combined expertise of award-winning mycologist, Paul Stamets, and herbal extract expert, C. Dusty Yao. With 40 years of experience, they grow every mushroom ingredient in their products on their own farm and harvest them at the peak of potency. Not only that, all of their mushrooms are certified organic, non-GMO verified, bee-friendly and grown in the USA.

Speaking of bees, Host Defense also created the Give Bees a Chance program to support research for healthy bee colonies using mushrooms. Together with Dr. Steve Sheppard, Chair of the Department of Entomology at Washington State University, Stemets created the Bee Friendly Initiative to address honey bees’ Colony Collapse Disorder. Based on initial experiments in 2015, bees that drank Host Defense extracts showed substantial benefit, as reported by Dr. Sheppard. 

Through the 2018 Give Bees a Chance promotion, purchases of Host Defense will result in donations of both cash and mushroom extracts to the Bee Friendly Initiative. Through previous promotions, Host Defense has already donated more than $100,000 and a large supply of extracts for research. As part of this year’s promotion, they’ve pledged to donate up to another $50,000 to Washington State University for additional research.  

Want to support the bees and your own healthy lifestyle? Look for Host Defense products in our healthy living department!