The setting picked to release a documentary about the real-life tale of Daryl Thompson to the world, the Crabby Lady Restaurant and Bar on the northern tip of the Ten Thousand Islands region of Florida, could not have been more in sync with Thompson’s career spent working just out of the spotlight in the Everglades.
The Crabby Lady is on southern Marco Island, and to the south islands appear to break off peninsular Florida like so many icebergs off the end of a glacier sticking out into the sea. The restaurant and bar would be the perfect blueprint for anybody wanting to recreate an Old Florida shrimp shack.
Thompson’s career as a citizen-scientist is going to be told here this night, the story of a visionary who scours the Everglades and similar areas worldwide for natural elements that he is convinced can be used to treat some of humankind’s worst and most pervasive ailments.
The documentary is being shown after “a five-year multi-pronged project that yielded multiple patents and potentially billions of dollars in licensing” said the film’s marketing materials.
“It allowed us to create a template for problem-solving that I think can be duplicated around the world,” Thompson said. “That is part of what the film is about: The blueprint to forming several quick-thinking, fast-acting groups around the world that can identify potential problems and create solutions outside the traditional channels that aren’t able to move as fast.”
Thompson, founder of Global Research and Discovery Group in Winter Haven, said he has “spent his career working out of the spotlight and inventing biological and medical technologies that, when fully deployed, better the lives of people around the world” according to the promotional material.
On top of that, there would be an appearance by Dusty Crum, known as "Wildman" who appeared in the TV show "Guardians of the Glades" which aired on the Discovery Channel. That show focused on his efforts to hunt invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, highlighting the significant environmental impact these snakes have on the local ecosystem.
Crum didn’t show.
But 50 of Thompson’s friends and true believers did, to watch the film in the same Everglades where he purported to find several of the natural ingredients designed to make current medications better or become a new twist on treatments that haven’t worked as well as they can. Thompson was welcomed heartily, and cheers arose after the screening.
“The BioQuest” showed Thompson and a small team trudging through the Everglades on a hunt for orchids, lichens, and other plants that form the basis of their research.
It also highlighted his company’s associations with a former National Institute of Health epidemiologist who is now part of Global Research, a like-minded biopharmaceutical company and investor, and a lab that is shown working to turn Thompson’s research into real-life products.
“Parts of this story may sound impossible — trust me, I sometimes shake my head at the things we’ve been able to create — but at the end of the day, it still rings true,” Thompson said.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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