[MPWG] Saving Plants That Save Lives

Mon Jan 7 17:07:14 CST 2008

Wow, quoting Mussolini on this list?? "Fascism... is the merger of state and corporate power."? hmmmm... Robin, I hope you don't think that Law inevitably equals Fascism.? Although, it's all too sad but true in corporatized America.? But as Bill McKibben says in "The End of Nature," I for one intend to go out kicking... meaning I am still convinced the law is ours, not theirs (sorry, I got 4.0s in my environmental law classes in college. I love the law).

Policy and law are two separate things, or at least they can be.? Laws are policies, but policies are not always laws -- thank goodness, because if we had to vote or wait for Congress to get around to voting between vacations for every policy we want, we'd be in limbo forever.? Corporate policies, for example, are not laws, although we often wish they were so that we could send in the troops and enforce them when corporate people hand us lipservice instead of real ethics.

Unfortunately, in the corporate world, most people seem to keep their ethics in the wine cellar -- they bring them out only on very special occasions, when they want to impress people.? Otherwise, the ethics are corked up and moldering in a dark corner, gathering dust.? But corporate people do love to keep that show-off collection, don't they.

Bringing it back to plants, and this is for Bob too -- the only way to check for real ethics in collecting and purchasing is through ground-proofing.? Collectors ought to be able to provide maps of the resource -- organic certification requires mapping, why?? because ground-proofed info is not only proof for the buyer, it's a planning tool for the collector / farmer.? If collectors can't be trusted to ground-proof their own maps, how about county soil conservation service folks, or forest service folks?? make them earn that gravy train salary of theirs...

Robin and Bob both spoke of increased citizen participation. Please read "Boundaries of Home: Mapping for Local Empowerment."? You don't need GIS or MapPro software (information is power my friends, why leave it to the techno-rich?)? Of course this is all the stuff we've been talking about for HWB's fair trade program.? Start with mapping.? Make the collectors ground-proof.? Make the buyers prove they have purchased ground-proofed resources.? Not a new idea, but not yet practiced on a scale that matters, on a scale that truly puts the corporate policy where the corporate mouth is.

Look at what's happening now, with product recall and tainted products coming from God knows where.? Why shouldn't an audit trail be required with or without organic certification?? when the food system is now so rotten that little children are dying from using their toothpaste.? Why not make it our policy and forget about waiting for Congress to pass it as law.

By the way, Ed, if you're still reading -- I have always thought the NEPA's requirement for EAs and EISs (environmental assessments, environmental impact statements) should include plant resources, and not just threatened / endangered plants.? It's a shame we have to ask developers to let us collect / salvage plants if in the kindness of their hearts they can see the point -- nine times out of ten they will say no if only to avoid liability, don't want someone twisting their ankle on your property, you know.? Here in PA I recently watched a six mile swath of land along the Little Juniata river get turned into hamburger and covered in concrete for the expansion of route 322 -- good rich river-loam biodiverse land just ripped to shreds.? Our governor thinks that freakin' casinos are the answer to our fiscal problems (oh, and now it's coming out in the papers that the casino owners have ties to organized crime GO FIGURE).? Can you imagine how much money the state could have made if the timber standing on that six mile swath had been judiciously harvested, if every black cohosh and partridge berry and wild yam and witchhazel and goldenseal and more, had been collected before the backhoes moved in?? We've mentioned on this list before that people who claim they got plants from "salvage" could in fact be lying -- alright, then let the taxpayers have the proceeds.? Too good an idea for governor Rendell (and it cuts out his wise-guy buddies, his good-old-friends...).? I once had a job doing archeology for the state -- as per NEPA requirements, since NEPA protects our "cultural heritage" along with the environment.? We went in and dropped test pits in front of the bulldozers, looking for artifacts or burials or other signs of historical life -- and the bulldozers had to stop in their tracks if we found something and wait for us to document it and take it out.? A burial could stop things indefinitely. So, national unemployment is now at around 5%.? How about plant salvage, and pay the workers on the proceeds?? Is that another idea too good to be true? 

Well Bob I told you not to apologize for ranting.? That's my obligation now... :)? Apologies for the rant, though I'm not sorry I care enough to say something...

best regards, 
Jennifer? www.herbalistswithoutborders.org 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Fri, 4 Jan 2008 11:46 am
Subject: Re: [MPWG] addendum Re: Saving Plants That Save Lives

I'm a bit "later than usual" chiming in on this topic. I mostly agree with everything stated by Jennifer, Bob, and Ed. I cannot speak to sustainability of collection issues elsewhere as I have little or no direct experience in most regions of the world.

Ed's words tend to more accurately reflect my own sentiments based on what I see here in western North Carolina. Despite the national slowdown (meltdown) of the housing market, the blight of suburban and vacation/resort development continues here at an unprecidented pace.
This creates a struggle over and competion for our natural resource base as never before.

Basically, traditional use populations are losing ground to development. Harvesters become easy scapegoats due to our overreliance on state and federal policy to protect these resources while the relatively wealthy, organized, and politically savvy (loggers, developers, realtors and bankers) continue to profit on the natural capital of this once great nation at the expense of that resource and those who depend on them for income, beauty, and recreation.

Policy based approaches by nature are flawed as they are always riddled with loopholes known only to the legally educated and thus usually wealthy. If you don't buy that then at least buy this: Policy is only as enduring as the administrations and governments that enact and enforce them contrasted with natural order which is eternal.

Policy based "fixes" merely represent job security for attorneys, CPAs, bureaucrats, and politicians. Policy is usually crafted by bureaucrats, politicians, and corporate interests here in the USA. In a word this is fascism.

Think I've gone of on a wild tirade? Consider these words popularly attributed to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini:

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
        merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

Much of this "fascist agenda" is propagated by the greenwashing of "intent" and incorporated into the language present in most current policy.

The resulting policy, although possibly much debated by all the special interest groups who want to be "right", continues to rain down on the unempowered fringe populations and cultures (i.e. wildharvesters) as the iron fist of the "machine".

Once again, let's revisit the notion that perhaps I am on some wild tirade. At the very least, the preceeding sentiment is the widely held perspective in so many words held by many in the wild harvesting professions. And as is popularly verbalized in our culture, "Perspective is reality."

Our current systems of policy development, enactment, and enforcement is ineffective for many reasons if for no other than it is by nature, divisive. So we continue to see the same scenario played out time and time again. People argue, postulate, and fight while plants suffer.

If our natural world is to survive, we must as Humans become "bridge-builders" forging systems based approaches to address environmental ills. We must embrace long lasting systemic change that recognizes the inter-specific relationships shared by all of God's creation.

If we as Humans do not actually INCREASE our level of participation based in reciprocity with the natural world, the best we can expect is for what we know as the natural world in the future will be? a relict population in an inaccurately assembled community in some botanical gardens or zoological park. This possible scenario may join with many "symptoms" (i.e global warming, loss of biodiversity, pollution,.......) we are now experiencing as a resulting from a pathology of our own making.

Quite simply, it is time to address the disease and not the symptoms. As long as Humankind separates itself from the natural world by walls created by sectarian religion and science we will indeed experience the self-fulfilling prophecies of both.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin

-----Original Message-----?

From: Edward J Fletcher 

Sent: Jan 4, 2008 9:11 AM

To: Bob Beyfuss , "cafesombra at aol.com" , "MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org" 

Subject: Re: [MPWG] addendum Re: Saving Plants That Save Lives

Well Said Bob "laws 
don't protect plants", but in some instances we do need 
them.

?

Example, I made an 
observation years ago while we were doing a plant rescue project where a housing 
development was going in. They allowed us to come in and rescue the plants on 
the lots as they were sold?before dozing them under. This particular day 
there were?4 people on the rescue. We dug the plants within the marked 
boundary and we dug for a little over?4 hours, collecting over 16 different 
species of plants and yes some were considered protected. 

Then a bulldozer came 
in and dozed the same area in less than one hour, leaving nothing and 
devastating everything to the point of no possibility?of 
regrow!

So simple calculation 
showed me that a bull dozer can destroy more in one hour that a man can dig in a 
whole day. And the digging material usually gives it?a chance for regrowth! 
Dozing does not!

?

My point is, there are 
no laws to cause "construction" to allow?plant rescues before 
"destroying" the whole environment! Neither are there incentives for those few 
companies that do work to preserve as much of our natural landscape as possible. 
There Should Be.

?

WE must be 
heard.?Again it comes down to US,the people, speaking up.... any way we 
can... and it may start here in this little forum called the 'list serve'. 

?

Edward J. 
Fletcher

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Beyfuss
Sent: 
  1/3/2008 4:22 PM
To: cafesombra at aol.com; 
  MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: Re: [MPWG] addendum Re: 
  Saving Plants That Save Lives

Laws don't protect plants, in fact 
  laws protecting plants that are completely unenforceable, as most plant laws 
  are, only serve to make the plants more valuable and do far more harm than 
  good. Where is the evidence that any law protecting any commercially used 
  plant has actually accomplished that goal??? People who nurture and 
  use plants protect them far more than any laws. 

At 03:55 PM 
  1/3/2008, cafesombra at aol.com wrote:

It's a crime that saving the plants that save lives is a voluntary 
      act, if you think you might want to, and allowing unrestricted trade of 
      unsustainable ingredients is protected by law.

Before 
    anyone criticizes this sentence, yes there are laws protecting plants.? 
    Not enough, and not well enforced.? 

-----Original 
    Message-----
From: cafesombra at aol.com
To: 
    MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
Sent: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 3:45 
    pm
Subject: Re: Saving Plants That Save 
    Lives

Hello,
"Unsustainable collection practices" (which we've 
    been blaming for years now) may be threatening / endangering plants.? 
    But what causes unsustainable collection?? Why are people pulling too 
    many plants out of the wild without implementing appropriate replanting 
    and/or protection measures?? Could it be that unsustainable contracting 
    for commercial ingredients is the culprit??? Business people, 
    especially the big users (I would say "players," if creating a sustainable 
    future were a game) can point the finger at collectors 'til the cowslip 
    comes home.? But business people are the ones paying the 
    collectors.? Now that distribution and product placement make it 
    difficult if not impossible for all but the bigger players to get into the 
    commerce game, we can no longer say that consumers demand it so, let's 
    supply what the people want.? Consumers wander down the aisles choosing 
    from amongst what is there, and if one product disappears and an! other 
    replaces it, they still choose from what's there.? They still tend to 
    choose what is placed right in front of their faces, as all informed 
    business people know.? Imagine a world where no one can find any 
    non-organic products except by shunning the stores and going to their local 
    chemical factory farms to support the local underdogs. It's not going to do 
    your company any good to "give the people what they want" if the environment 
    is ruined and the source runs out in the process -- unless you are in it for 
    the quick return rather than the long haul.
I may be preaching to the 
    choir, assuming that signing up for an email list affirms one's commitment 
    to a sustainable future.? So, if everyone on this list is already 
    perfect, how do we reach those who do not voluntarily choose to do the right 
    thing?? Because that is what we need to do.? It's a crime that 
    saving the plants that save lives is a voluntary act, if you think you might 
    want to, and allowing unrestricted trade of unsustainable ingredients is 
    protected by law.
Jennifer? www.herbalistswithoutborders.org 

-----Original Message-----
From: Olivia Kwong < 
    plant at plantconservation.org>
To: mpwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Sent: 
    Thu, 3 Jan 2008 10:53 am
Subject: [MPWG] NEWS: Saving Plants That Save 
    Lives

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080101202622.htm

Saving 
    Plants That Save Lives

ScienceDaily (Jan. 1, 
    2008) - Poor or non-existent collection controls are 

threatening the survival of many of the plant species used 
    in traditional 

and modern medicines. Some estimates indicate 
    that 15,000 of the 50,000 - 

70,000 plant species used for 
    medicinal purposes and mostly collected from 

the wild may be 
    threatened, many as a direct result of unsustainable 

collection practices.

See the 
    link above for the full 
    article.

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To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to MPWG-request at lists.plantconservation.org 
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Any advice given on this list regarding diagnosis or treatments etc. 
    reflects ONLY the opinion of the individual who posts the message. The 
    information contained in posts is not intended nor implied to be a 
    substitute for professional medical advice relative to your specific medical 
    condition or question. All medical and other healthcare information that is 
    discussed on this list should be carefully reviewed by the individual reader 
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Robin Alton Suggs
MoonBranch Botanicals
5294 Yellow Creek Road
Robbinsville, North Carolina 28771 
USA

Telephone: 828.479.2788
moonbranch at earthlink.net
www.moonbranch.com

Member:
American Herbalist Guild
Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project; Farm Partner
Co-op America 
Green Products Alliance 
National Network of Forest Practitioners
North Carolina Consortium on Natural Medicines 
North Carolina Goodness Grows/NCDA&CS 
North Carolina Natural Products Association
Southwestern North Carolina RC&D Council
United Plant Savers 

"We have no choice but to respect that which sustains us."

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