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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>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 <u>and</u> use. I feel they all are valid
pieces of the discussion if our goals include Sustainability, Quality, and
Respect for our beautiful planet.</span></font></p>
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10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Sincerely,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Anita (Teena) Hayden, PhD</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Vice President</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Native American Botanics Corp</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><a
href="mailto:hayden@nativeamericanbotanics.com">hayden@nativeamericanbotanics.com</a></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b>
MPWG-bounces@lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:MPWG-bounces@lists.plantconservation.org] <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Jean Giblette<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Friday, January
07, 2005</span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'> </span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>11:22 AM</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> PCA's Medicinal Plant Working
Group List<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [MPWG] Cultivation of
Medicinal Plants</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>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.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>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."</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>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.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>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.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Ecological cultivation of medicinal
plants is the way to go.</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Jean Giblette, Director<br>
HIGH FALLS GARDENS<br>
Box 125 Philmont NY 12565 USA<br>
518-672-7365<br>
<a href="mailto:hfg@capital.net">hfg@capital.net</a></span></font></p>
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