Steve has been involved in specialty agriculture and organic food production systems for his entire professional life. He has been active in various aspects of mycology and mushroom production for over 30 years. His initial focus was on the production of specialty, gourmet mushrooms for fresh produce markets. He has been involved in the planning, startup and operation of several mushroom farms and has served as a consultant and mushroom equipment broker to mushroom farms all over the world. He has commercially produced many mushroom species as fresh produce items including Oyster, Enoki, Maitake, Shiitake, King Trumpet and Beech mushrooms. Starting in 2007, his focus turned to the production and processing, select species of medicinal, nutraceutical mushrooms for use as functional foods and dietary supplement ingredients. These medicinal mushrooms are produced utilizing a proprietary Solid State Fermentation process that consistently produces high-quality mushroom powders under the brand name Mushroom Matrix in the San Diego area. Development of this process and selection of the species and substrate for production involved multiple trips to Japan, Taiwan and Europe as well as consultation and cooperation with many mycological colleagues.