[MPWG] Cultivation of Medicinal Plants

[Anita Hayden]

As a fellow grower and a lurker on this listserve, I am in complete
agreement with the beautifully articulated comments of Ms. Giblette. I hope
in the coming year, the MPWG can facilitate and promote more discussions of
issues surrounding appropriate cultivation methods for Medicinal Plants. We
have much to learn and re-learn. not only from the early pioneers, but also
from new biotechnology approaches, advanced propagation methods for
hard-to-grow and slow-growing crops, genetic ID of seeds, and conversations
on sustainable production and use. I feel they all are valid pieces of the
discussion if our goals include Sustainability, Quality, and Respect for our
beautiful planet.

 

Sincerely,

Anita (Teena) Hayden, PhD

Vice President

Native American Botanics Corp

hayden at nativeamericanbotanics.com

 

-----Original Message-----
From: MPWG-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:MPWG-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of Jean Giblette
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 11:22 AM
To: PCA's Medicinal Plant Working Group List
Subject: Re: [MPWG] Cultivation of Medicinal Plants

 

I know many growers in the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand who
consider themselves to be the ORIGINATORS of this knowledge base of
ecological cultivation.  Yes, there were the prophets -- Okada, Howard,
Steiner, Voisin, Fukuoka -- but in the industrial world the machine
worldview has ruled for a century.  Organics was an entirely grass-roots
activity for 50 years in the U.S. until the Federal rule was formulated in
the 1990s.  The agricultural education establishment was actively hostile to
it.  [Steve Diver has been quite the exception to the norm, all along.]  I
myself was rebuffed by my local Ag Extension agent in the early '90s when I
began growing Chinese medicinal herbs -- now he's very courteous and
helpful. Fortunately I was able to find enlightened academics, but many are
encumbered by their institutions.  The ecological farmers have created their
own separate teaching organizations, associations and conferences.

 

Bio-dynamics, historically, was developed only by growers, never the
province of the academy or industrial concerns unless owned by
Anthroposophists.  It was almost entirely underground until the 1990s in the
U.S., as its practitioners were met with utter derision at the idea of
following the course of the moon in their procedures, or using fermented
herbal preparations in homeopathic doses.  As far as I'm concerned, a
bio-dynamically cultivated herb is as good or better than a wild plant.  I
visited two biodynamic medicinal plant gardens this past summer, in NY and
Quebec, where the plants exhibited truly astonishing vitality.  It's so
apparent I call it the "Findhorn effect."

 

For one moment, can we address class prejudice against farmers?  An anecdote
will serve.  This past September at the conclusion of one of my workshops,
an Oriental medicine practitioner in attendance told me that the weekend had
changed his life.  He's a young African-American man, practicing in Jersey,
whose ancestors were sharecroppers in North Carolina.  He said, "I always
thought that farming was beneath me, something I would never want to be
involved in.  Then I saw that man [referring to the bio-dynamic medicinal
plant grower who was lecturing], how incredibly skilled and thoughtful he
is, and how wide-ranging his knowledge.  And my whole worldview shifted."
He later told me he had enrolled himself and his two young children in a
horticulture course.

 

To be ruthlessly frank, the big deficit of this listserve is that the
growers are missing from the discussion.  I can afford the time to write
this response only because I'm holed up after a snowstorm in January.

 

Ecological cultivation of medicinal plants is the way to go.

 

 

Jean Giblette, Director
HIGH FALLS GARDENS
Box 125 Philmont NY 12565 USA
518-672-7365
hfg at capital.net

 

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