[MPWG] Cultivation of Medicinal Plants

Fri Jan 7 11:23:45 CST 2005

PS> Sorry for mis-spelling your name Jean.  Cheers. Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: MPWG-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:MPWG-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of Eric P.
Burkhart
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 12:18 PM
To: 'Jean Giblette'; 'PCA's Medicinal Plant Working Group List'
Subject: RE: [MPWG] Cultivation of Medicinal Plants

Greetings:

Ecological cultivation……what do we mean by this?  Sure, as Jeanne has
done, we can point to certifiable forms of eco-horticulture (i.e.,
biodynamic, organic, biological-agriculture, etc.).

I submit to you that other, less neatly definable, forms of “ecological”
cultivation continue to occur under the radar and these are being
questioned in the very name of “medicinal plant conservation.”  Take for
example American ginseng.  The market actually prefers a product that is
ecologically produced, using the natural forest ecosystems that we are
blessed with in eastern North America.  This type of product is
essentially a “wild” product…….yet the growers, planters, husbanders,
whatever you elect to call them, of this type of product are being
slowly forced into calling it “wild-simulated.”  Why?  Because from a
government management perspective (which is admittedly
well-intentioned), the two products cannot be distinguished apart and
how then can the “wild” populations be identified and/or managed?  Why
should it matter if they have to call it “wild simulated” versus “wild?”
Well, it should not….in an ideal world.  But in the modern marketplace
there is failure to compensate folks duly for their agricultural goods,
and wild versus wild simulated---by name alone---may mean the difference
between getting $400 per pound versus $150, respectively.

So then, what do we mean by suggesting that “cultivation is the future.”
I suppose we mean that one should introduce plants into orderly
horticultural systems (within whatever eco-nomencultural context we each
individually embrace)?  I certainly am not hearing any support for, or
acknowledgement of, all those folks out there (and they are out there)
who quietly go about their business of tending plants in the woods (or
whatever ecosystem)….plants that appear as “wild” as can be when we
trespass on their lands through imposed top-down inspections,
regulations, and the like.

I am raising rhetorical questions here folks, and not trying to ruffle
feathers or place fault on any stakeholder.  But it does seem to me that
one of the best methods for conserving AND culturing a native medicinal
forest plant (of high quality mind you)---namely low-input,
low-disturbance agroforestry systems---is being threatened by our naive
conservation lexicon and rubric.  

No easy answers here to be sure.

Kindest regards,

Eric

-----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
----- Original Message ----- 
From: JPS Kohli <mailto:info at businesshorizons.com>  
To: MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org 
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 1:27 AM
Subject: [MPWG] Cultivation of Medicinal Plants

Steve Diver has further strengthened my belief that cultivation
(bio-dynamic or organic or any other form it takes) will be the next big
thing to happen in the field of medicinal plants. It is my belief that
cultivation is the immediate next step forward which has to be
understood before embarking on newer (and maybe better) methods towards
conservation of medicinal plants. Good agricultural practices
(encompassing all processes starting from soil preparation to
harvesting/storage) needs to be implemented industry-wide and
certification agencies will have an important role to play.

Sadly, the growers/cultivators of medicinal plants are among the most
inaccessible parts of the chain of supply in medicinal plants trade and
the knowledgebase (as improved from time to time) takes an eternity to
percolate down to them. Lets hope things change for the better sooner
rather than later.

Note for Steve Diver - Your website mentioned in your email is an
awesome source of information. My compliments for this achievement.

J P S Kohli (B. Pharm)
Business Horizons
Pharmaceutical Publishers
G-59, Masjid Moth, GK-2
New Delhi - 110 048, INDIA

Ph: 91-921206 1554
Fax: 91-11-5163 7296, 2921 1676
E-Mail: info at businesshorizons.com
Alternate: businesshorizons at yahoo.com
Web Site: http://www.businesshorizons.com

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