Jonas Brab reflects on discussions with Global Supplier Manager, Matt Richards on the need for partnership to support growers to overcome challenges imposed by commercial and environmental pressures.

Within the last few years, incidences of extreme weather events have become increasingly common (1). This affects all living beings across the world. Curious about how these effects have been impacting the herbal world, I spoke with Matt Richards, Global Supplier Manager at Organic Herb Trading. Since 2014, he has been working with suppliers, producers, growers and customers from all over the world and built relationships with the people, the plants and the land he has encountered.

Organic Herb Trading is a part of social and agricultural movement inspired by the global Organic movement, Soil Association, FairWild, and Fair for Life, amongst other associations striving to positively impact social and environmental wellbeing in the industry. These discussions are a reflection of some of the real-life challenges that growers and harvesters face, and subsequently ethically-motivated suppliers that engage in such an approach to combat these issues together.

Partnerships to support growers

For those who aspire to fairness and sustainability in the supply chain, the work is complex — building partnerships with different suppliers is unique to each supplier, just as growing any herb is unique to each herb and each environment. Understanding the requirements to provide assurance within different aspects, such as organic integrity, food safety, human rights and environmental responsibility and impact, requires time, a lot of planning, and knowledge of legislation, certification, principles and practices and about the growing conditions of a vast variety of plants. Yet, most crucially for his work is the foundation of a trusting partnership between supplier and buyer.

Things are constantly evolving, regulations, environmental risks and geopolitical changes all threaten to destabilise conditions for growing and supplying herbs. To be able to guarantee a fair price for the growers or harvesters, as well as minimally impact on the environment, collaboration and full transparency throughout the whole supply chain are essential — from grower or harvester to final consumer. This is not easy, and while it is not possible for suppliers to visit and talk to every farmer or collector, working to strategically maximise this form of partnership, in order to benefit everyone involved fairly, works towards good environmental practices and complies with the high-quality standards often requested by customers and buyers.

Not only does this relationship benefit the growers and farmers, but the companies buying the herbs and their customers too. Working in this way improves the reliability of the supply, offers consistency in pricing, and positively impacts the quality of the herbs received — owing to how working in partnership permits the suggestion and adoption of practices in herb growing or processing that lead to improved herb quality.

Some relationships that Matt has established are with farmers who he has been working with for many years. Other times, he is more involved with those representing farmer collectives or the supply business. Through in-person visits, suppliers can foster meaningful connections and build transparent value networks throughout the industry, across the globe.

In instances where forming direct partnerships are, for whatever reason, not possible, the next best thing is the assurance provided by third-party verification, certifications such as Organic, FairWild, and Fair for Life. These ensure that all parties are subscribing to and abiding by the same principles. Though these offer no true substitute to partnership, they offer a recognisable means to protect the land, support growers and customers too — as a simple means for herbal business owners, herbalists or herbal tea drinkers to ensure they are supporting herb growing communities through their purchasing choices.

Understanding one another, understanding the context

Sometimes, when new potential suppliers are visited, the meeting may raise issues that wouldn’t have come to light in any other way. Matt shared one example, from when he was visiting Vietnam as part of a group looking at sources for ginger and turmeric. One such farm they visited was visibly in its infancy, with obvious indications from the surrounding land that it had been created by cutting down old grove forest. While this may produce very fertile soil for growing crops, deforestation is far from sustainable practice and is against organic regulation. Yet, whilst recognising the violation of principles, Matt also acknowledges the nuances and challenges that allow these situations to arise, such as social and economic pressures that lead to the pursuit of unsustainable practices. 

As buyers, coming from wealthier countries, having an awareness of the underlying power imbalances and the complex colonial history is essential to handle relations with care and understanding. While spices and herbs were globally traded long before the beginning of colonialism, the pursuit of spices played a crucial role within the colonial and extractive expansion of the major European nations. The context is still relevant, and the impact of colonial history is still palpable. 

While colonial forces may have left, those that have taken control of these trades may have taken on colonial ways of engaging with workers, growers and collectors and extractive mindsets are very much still at work today. To take the values of fairness and equality seriously, one has to be acutely aware of the local social contexts, which in turn relies on strong relationships between buyers and suppliers.

Though, even in long-established relationships, things can go wrong at either end, and in those moments, supportive partnerships that foster accountability are especially crucial to find solutions together. In partnerships, prices are not continuously pushed down in pursuit of ever-cheaper goods at the expense of those growing or harvesting herbs and growers and collectors can voice their challenges and feelings of uncertainty about the future.

Climate impact

Weather patterns are changing and the seasons are shifting, which is apparent in the UK with these changes affecting the reliability of crop harvests. So, what are the current issues that people around the world are facing when it comes to growing and supplying organic herbs? 

One major challenge is the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Farmers all over the world report feeling more and more unsure about what the weather will bring on a year-to-year basis. India, where many Ayurvedic herbs are sourced, is used to monsoon season — three months of heavy rainfall. In recent years this has become extreme, with flooding becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence, with a threefold rise in the incidence of extreme rain events in central India between 1950 and 2012 (2). In 2023, flooding took whole crops of ginger away from some regions, leaving those plants left in the ground spoiled by rot due to the higher humidity and moisture presence.

But research suggests that other climate changes, already detectable in India, impact these crops. Over the last century the annual temperature has risen by 0.56C, which can stress plants, but also impacts water availability in the dry and hot times of the year. Increased flooding has led to increased soil erosion and, therefore, affects soil fertility. Higher precipitation in northeastern states has also led to increased pathogens (3). Peru is another country that commonly grows a lot of ginger. In recent years, there has been an observed increase in outbreaks of Ralstonia solanacearum, a bacterium that causes wilt in ginger and damages ginger crops.

This is thought to be due to slightly warmer, damper conditions. In Vietnam, an important source of cassia and tea, Matt saw remote villages cut off, factories flooded, and roads and woods lost. All of this is having an impact on local communities, their ability to live with the land and off the land, and of course the global supply chains of these herbs. 

The more long-term changes of weather patterns can also cause unpredictable changes for growers and collectors. Harvesting windows are changing everywhere. Elderflower harvest is becoming increasingly difficult in Eastern Europe as weather patterns change and the picking season becomes increasingly rainy, making picking and drying more difficult. Sarah Weston, who has been growing herbs for Organic Herb Trading in Somerset, UK for 15 years, reports that the harvest window for roots have changed as well.

Ideally roots are harvested, when all aerial parts of the plant have died back, but milder winters have meant that plants keep on producing foliage deep into winter, pushing back the harvest window for these crops. Additionally, rot can be more of an issue with warmer winters and impact root harvest as well.

Weather changes are already causing changes in the growth patterns of plants, pathogens and extreme weather conditions can make the outcome of a year’s work very unpredictable. While the movement of political orientation away from fossil fuel heavy industries and towards renewable and sustainable industries are still being hampered by fear of economic impacts in the future, in some areas of the world, the impact of climate change on people’s lives today is already too damaging and extends beyond fear of future economic shortcomings. 

Pesticide contamination

Another area in which growers and suppliers are struggling are the ever-increasing challenges brought by contamination of crops with pesticides. As discussed in Ecological farming of medicinal herbs, more and more pesticide residues are being found on wild harvested as well as commercially grown herbs. This can happen, even if farmers implement organic practices. The reason for this is non-point contamination, or in other words, contamination that happens through indirect exposure. One study looking at several different pesticides all over the world found that 19 different pesticides could be detected in the arctic, concluding that these pesticides are able to travel over long distances through the atmosphere (4).

Tests in Egypt revealed that dust carried over the land by sandstorms can contain high levels of pesticides, which can pose a threat to organic growers. Usually, contamination that is high enough to be of concern is more likely to be caused by agriculturally managed land close by, where the herbs are being harvested from. According to an article by the Guardian, pesticide use has almost doubled between 1990 and 2022 and more land is being used for agricultural use (5). All of these factors make it increasingly difficult to keep crops pesticide-free.

But the number of different pesticides available has also significantly increased over time. Due to the great variety of different pesticides, there is an equally abundant number of tests to be performed on products that are being analysed for pesticide content. Some test hundreds of different pesticides but it is usually impossible to test for every single one. Furthermore, one batch of a herb may be tested for some pesticides by one lab, and then for others in another country by a different lab. If a crop is found to be contaminated with pesticides, it loses its organic status, which makes sense of course from a consumer point of view.

However, this can be a very hard reality for growers, who may have been rigorously following organic regulations and relying on the higher price they receive for organic products, since the production itself tends to be more labour intensive. But if the product loses its organic status, then of course, it also loses its value, and this loss can often sit with the farmers or collectors. Farmer groups, growers, collectors, they all need to gain some assurance and support to be able to confidently supply organic, high-quality herbs sustainably. 

Transparency is key

Without the transparency throughout the supply chain, it is impossible to build good relationships and support one another with these challenges. When problems such as contamination turn up with one of Matt’s core partners, there is a collaborative process, to try and understand the issue and resolve it. This level of partnership depends on a deep understanding of the needs of everyone involved as well as the constricting parameters to meet those. This in turn requires understanding each other’s values, commitments and relations. This kind of relationship and the resulting trust is intrinsic to the work of responsible suppliers.

Collaborative work is also going on in the industry on a wider scale, with working groups that form part of the Sustainable Herbs Initiative (SHI), led by Ann Armbrecht. These groups consist of growers, suppliers and producers of different sizes and different markets, who, together, work on understanding and resolving some of the presenting challenges. This collaboration, the shared values as well as a growing awareness for these matters by customers, gives hope that things can change.

The members of SHI strive to create alternative paths to the status quo, where instead of making short-sighted, competitively and economically driven decisions, their work is guided by the needs of the land, plants and people. Perhaps instead, a new path can be created, with new paradigms of collaboration, trust, accountability and transparency as we face the challenges of our times. 

As individual consumers, practitioners or patients, we become a part of this web of global trade of herbs. How can we make sure we partake in such a way that we support this work, the land and the communities of people growing and harvesting the herbs we use?

By asking our suppliers about their sources and their commitment to a sustainable and fair trade, especially if we are aware that the herb we are wanting to buy has issues within its’s supply chain. With one simple question, where exactly are these herbs coming from? we can show suppliers that their customers care about the answer — a start to encouraging a shift in their approach to sourcing that puts plants and people at the centre.

The post Sourcing herbs organically: How partnerships support growers in the face of global challenges appeared first on Herbal Reality.

“First, do no harm… neither to the patients nor to the natural habitats of medicinal plants” writes Joseph Brinkman in his article on sustainable herbalism (2021). Given the nature of the path of herbalism, it is perhaps easy to assume that environmental sustainability as well as social justice would be at the heart of herbal medicine to ensure the long-term availability of medicinal plants, protect biodiversity, and support communities who cultivate and wild-harvest herbs. Yet, the path to a sustainable future is clouded by a lack of transparency and understanding as we step into relationships with herbs that have travelled many miles and passed many hands on the way.

Most practitioners are probably a long way away from the completely local, self-sustainable herbalist. The global trade of herbs and spices isn’t necessarily unsustainable and can indeed support people, plants and the ecosystems they are part of around the world. The sustainability of any given choice depends on a multitude of factors and is dependent on time and locality specific circumstances. Sustainability in herbalism means to practice herbalism in such a way that the future of herbs, the planet and the people involved is guaranteed and thriving. Every interaction we have with the world has an impact on it, whether we see it or not. Within a herbal practice this applies to various areas of work, from the way we get our herbs, the environmental impact of running our clinic to advice or education we may offer to others.

This guideline will look at ways to practice sustainably, within these three areas and provide relevant information and resources to make ethical decisions when it comes to practicing sustainable herbal medicine

Sourcing herbs

Buying herbs

Whether you wild-craft or grow your own herbs, the chances are that you still rely on buying herbs from all over the world. Quality, ecological sustainability and social equity are all interconnected. Suppliers may promise sustainable supply chains, but it is not uncommon for promises to fall short. If you really want to know what your supplier’s promises really mean, ask them.

• Do they know where their herbs come from?
• Have they seen the land it is harvested from?
• Are the herbs wild-harvested or cultivated? Is the land safe from major pollution?
• Are growers and harvesters treated with respect?
• Do they know the full supply chain?

Transparency in the herbal supply chain has long been an issue, although development in the recent decades has brought huge improvements (read more in Josef Brinckmann’s article). Suppliers need to know that transparency matters to their customers.

Certifications

Certifications such as organic can provide certain guarantees about environmental sustainability. FairWild specifically addresses the social equity and ecological sustainability of wild harvested herbs. Other certifications such as Fair4Life and FairTrade are dedicated to social equity side of things, and less with the ecological side of things. However, certified herbs may be more pricey — a challenging, but very real aspect of running a herbal practice. In establishing financial sustainability, pragmatic choices often have to be made.

Endangered herbs

Certain herbs are endangered and therefore their use is best avoided. Herbal Reality has a specific guide, which shows which herbs are best avoided or their use minimised, as their populations around the world are dwindling. The guide also offers information on which herbs might be used alternatively to these endangered herbs.

One of the benefits of a global trade of herbs is, after all, that we have access to so many different herbs, that we are usually able to find a different herb, that might be able to replace an endangered herb in one of our formulations.

Wild harvesting herbs

If you are able to wild harvest herbs for your practice, this is a great way to extend the relationship with the medicinal herbs you use. It is not uncommon for people to start gaining a completely new level of appreciation and respect, when wild-crafting their own medicines. 

However, it is important to consider a few points, in terms of quality and sustainability: 

1. Familiarise yourself with the land around you. Is the land being sprayed with pesticides? Are there any other concerns or possible pollutants? 
2. Familiarise yourself with the law. In the UK, it is illegal to dig up or remove a plant completely from the land on which it is growing without permission from the landowner or occupier (picking leaves or flowers is not removing the plant itself). 

And when it comes to actual harvest guidelines, The Honourable Harvest written by Robin Wall-Kimmerer acts as a wonderful guide to a sustainable, relational harvest:

“Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them. 
Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life. 
Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer. 
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Take only what you need.
Take only that which is given. 
Never take more than half.
Leave some for others. 
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. 
Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. 
Share. 
Give thanks for what you have been given. 
Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. 
Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.” (1) (Wall-Kimmerer, 2015, p.183)

This guide goes beyond the practical sustainability focused view of plant populations and invites us into a more relational way of approaching herbs. 

For more on sustainable harvesting practices, read our article A guide to safe and sustainable foraging. 

Growing herbs

Perhaps you have space to grow your own herbs and turn them into medicines. This is another way to step into a deeper relationship with the plants you use. To get to know herbs from the time they are but a seed, all the way to when you harvest them creates an understanding a medicine, far richer than when we merely buy herbs from a supplier. Avoiding  peat-enriched compost and the use of any chemicals is perhaps an important aspect of sustainable growing. There are many herbs that grow well in the UK, and most are much less demanding than many of the plants we have cultivated for food production, as many can be grown in pots and small spaces. Even if you cannot grow enough for your own practice, growing herbs may help you foster your connection to the plant, and may therefore help you deepen your appreciation for it. And it’s fun! 

For more articles on growing herbs, explore

• Beginners guide to growing medicinal herbs
• Growing in the city
• Easy to grow plants for the elderly.

Environmental impact of running a clinic

Packaging

Packaging often relies on cardboard, plastic, glass or aluminium. All these materials bring their benefits and drawbacks when it comes to sustainability. Perhaps most relevant for this guide are aluminium, glass, and plastic — as these are used for bottles, and are used by herbalists to buy, store and sell tinctures.

Aluminium

Aluminium is a material that can be infinitely recycled (currently 35% of aluminium in use is recycled), which from a sustainability point of view, is very beneficial. On the other hand, the raw material for aluminium manufacturing, called bauxite, is extracted mostly from Australia, China, Guinea, and Brazil and is often found in areas that count as indigenous land and contain ecosystems of particular importance, such as the Amazon rainforest in Brazil or the Guinean rainforest.

The mining requires extensive infrastructure, and the construction of mining sites therefore tends to have a very negative impact on local flora and fauna. Additionally, the mining process requires a lot of water, which can put local water systems and the life that depends on it under pressure. Large amounts of waste product, known as red mud, are stored in open air dams, which require large amounts of land.

Due to their high alkalinity, salinity and presence of heavy metals, this red mud poses a threat to local environments — plants, animals and people alike — in particular if said dams break (2). This happened in 2010 in Hungary, burying a town underneath this waste mud and giving those who came into contact with it chemical burns. In 2020, an article stated that globally there were three billion tonnes of red mud stored around the world, with numbers increasing yearly by 150 million tonnes per year (3).

There are currently trials underway to find uses for this waste product. While aluminium may be promising for long term recyclability, its current, ever-increasing use poses many environmental threats in areas of the world that need protecting the most, and affecting local communities. Perhaps another concern, although less from a sustainability point of view, is the potential of aluminium to react with ethanol and for aluminium particles to find their way into the stored tincture (4,5).

Glass

Glass is often seen as an environmentally friendly material. It is made from silica-rich sand, its production doesn’t produce toxic waste and it is long lasting — the oldest intact glass bottle is dated to 325 and 350 AD (6). Glass breaks back down into silica and doesn’t pollute the environment like plastic does. However, glass comes with its own cost for the environment when it comes to its production. It requires a large amount of heat, which makes it the carbon heaviest, when used as a single use item. Glass recycling systems vary from nation to nation.

In some countries, systems are in place to reuse bottles, without having to melt them down and recycle them. These reuse systems are perhaps the most sustainable option. But more often, even when glass is recycled, it is first crushed, molten down and then reshaped. Though recycled glass still requires less energy for reshaping into new glass products. 

The sand used is also an increasingly sought after resource — being the second most used resource in the world after water, and resources are dwindling (6). Its production requires a large amount of land, which can impact local biodiversity and silica dust can cause health issues for those involved in the production. 

So, while glass may be sustainable — if reused often — it’s highly unsustainable if used as a single use item. 

Plastic

Perhaps most associated with negative impacts for the environment are plastics. Plastics are made from mineral oils and, once used, break down into micro plastics, damaging ecosystems by polluting the air, soil and water — plastic has a bad reputation. Being a very durable, light and versatile material, it is used in all industries. Whilst striving to reduce plastic usage is an important aspect of sustainable practice, it is worth considering the downsides of alternative materials too. 

Overall, the question is not only, which material we may use for storage and delivery of herbal medicine, but also how we use them. And of course, we are reliant on suppliers and the way they package herbal products too. Aluminium and glass products may be more sustainable to plastic, but only if they can be reused. Glass has a high footprint in production, but it’s chemically a very stable compound and could technically be reused indefinitely. How can we get to systems, where we might refill tinctures, rather than using new aluminium, glass or plastic all the time? This is a challenge, not just for local herbalists but for the wider herbal industry. 

Green energy 

Renewable energy is on the rise in the UK (7). While the production of technology used within renewable energy doesn’t come with its own costs, it is still the most sustainable source of energy we have. Switching to renewable energy providers is another way, one can contribute to a more sustainable future. 

Sustainability awareness

While we can aim to improve our own way of working with herbs towards more sustainability in many practical ways, perhaps one of the most important elements to be able to do this is to increase our own awareness around sustainability matters and to share this awareness with others too. Whether we offer health consultations, herb walks, gardening talks, teach or hold workshops, we are engaging not just with herbs but with people too.

What can we do, to first raise our own awareness but then also that of those we engage with? How can sustainability be a more fundamental part of herbalism?

One way perhaps to include more sustainability in the way we teach herbalism. Every time we learn of a herb, we learn its pharmacology, its medicinal uses and perhaps some of its history and folklore. But do we learn where it comes from, how it is harvested and transported and how its live plant populations are impacted through our use of it? There is so much more to an herb’s story than its pharmacology. 

There are increasing resources available at Herbal Reality but also elsewhere when it comes to sustainability issues within the herbal industry: TRAFFIC, The Sustainable Herbs Initiative and FairWild.

Yet, awareness builds best on experience. By working with herbs from seed to final herbal product can offer a vital understanding and appreciation for the herbs that we work with and their journey to becoming medicine. 

Building a sustainable future: Step by step

There are no easy solutions to a sustainable future. So much is clear. Everything has a cost, and we cannot escape using carbon, and leaving a footprint on this earth. It may seem overwhelming to try and tackle everything and perhaps even financially impossible for some to do as much as they would like to.

Many people within the sustainability profession experience burn out due to their strong drive and commitment to face the challenges and bring on change, and difficulty in pushing back against the consumerism and demands of the modern growth economy (8). Being exposed to the information about the impact of climate change on the planetary ecosystems and all life, can bring on many challenging emotions.

The change required is way beyond the capacity of any individual, yet we all need to do something. While aiming for a more sustainable future, we have to do this with compassion and understanding for our own place within it. Tread lightly, not just on the planet but within our own minds.

What can we realistically achieve within our work? Where do we need to aim for a compromise, between financial and environmental sustainability? Where can we do more? How can we bring about change with joy and collaboration, rather than shame and guilt. This mental shift is also necessary if we want to walk towards a sustainable herbal practice. 

The post Sustainable herbalism: A guide for medical herbalists appeared first on Herbal Reality.

More than ever before, we live in an era of globalisation and information availability. We have access to medicinal herbs all over the world, and more and more scientific data available to show their efficacy. In Europe the herbal medicine market has been predicted to keep growing in the next few years, due to an increased inclination towards “natural” products, an ageing population and a proliferation of chronic disease (1). But the global herbal market goes beyond the herbs that are required for herbal medicinal use. Food and drink, as well as cosmetics, perfume, incense, aromatherapy, pharmaceuticals all rely on herbs in their industries^. One surprising sector, relying on large amounts of herbs is the tobacco industry, which requires large amounts of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza spp.) Most of the liquorice harvested goes into glycyrrhizin extraction, most of which goes into the tobacco industry, where it is added to tobacco, to enhance its texture and flavour.

Herbs may conjure up an image of being natural, and good and somehow being inherently sustainable. Perhaps being picked by country folk or grown and harvested by hand, and dried carefully in some drying shed. It certainly doesn’t bring up the same images as one might get, when thinking about growing corn, wheat or potatoes. And although it is true, that herbs are often picked from the wild in rural areas, handpicked by people living on the edge (or beyond) of the modern world, it is also true, that these people are often from marginalised groups, vulnerable to exploitation and that the land is exposed to pollution with pesticides and other manmade chemicals, that we would rather not like to find in our medicinal herbal products. Equitable and environmentally sustainable trade is currently not the norm within the world, it tends to be the exception. This is why certification systems such as Organic, Fair Trade, Fair 4 Life and FairWild have been created — to offer guidance to those who wish to treat the planet, and the people involved in the procurement of these plants fairer, and to provide a guarantee to those buying these products on the other side of the supply chain. 

Ultimately, as people who endorse the relationship with herbs and who rely on herbs from all over the world, we are part of a worldwide web of relationships between people, plants and planet. Whether we buy our herbs from our local health food shop, or online from a wholesaler, it is likely that they were grown far away, in another country (or even another continent), collected and processed by people who we have never seen, and will never meet. Whether we open our eyes to it or not, through our choices we are part of this community and play our part in it. And even if this didn’t concern us, even if we were only concerned about the quality and efficacy of the herbs we consume or give to our clients, to be concerned about this means to also be concerned about ecological and social sustainability. Without ecological and social sustainability, the quality of our herbs suffers also. How so? How are these all intrinsically connected? 

Pesticides

Pesticides tend to be a problem more so within the growing of food crops, which have often been genetically modified to withstand the effects of herbicides and have been bred for features such as heavy crops, fast growth and optimum storage conditions, and not for resilience within a natural environment.  Herbs, on the other hand, tend to not be subject to this kind of selection. However, in recent times, use of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides has become so widespread and prolific, that pollution into surrounding water and land has become an ever-increasing issue. This means the impact of these chemicals is detectable far beyond the boundaries of the fields on which they were applied. This has major implications for the environment. The intensification of agriculture and in particular the recurrent use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is the primary driver for the loss of biodiversity of birds, insects, mammals and aquatic organisms in streams. With the current trends, it is estimated that we will lose 40% of the world’s insect species over the next few decades (2).

The contamination with pesticides through these indirect sources is called non-point contamination, a phenomenon, which is more and more detectable within culinary and medicinal herbs commonly harvested from non-organic as well as organic sources (3,4,5,6). Although organically cultivated crops show far less residues (4), and generally must be tested for pesticide residues, to maintain their organic certification. While some medicinal herbs tend to be sourced from cultivation, many herbs are exclusively wild harvested. However, wild harvest does not guarantee that the final product will be free from pesticides. Often, wild-collection sites are close to agricultural areas and pesticides find their ways into the local ecosystem. One study compared samples from cultivation and wild-collection and found that the wild-collection sources had higher levels of contaminants (3). 

One study analysed 47 different ginseng products including both Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) and American ginseng (P. quinquefolius) to determine the content of pesticides and toxic heavy metals (5). They found that 24 samples (80%) contained pesticides above the detection limit and 13 samples (43%) did not comply with the maximum residue limits (MRL) for various pesticides imposed for botanical extracts. The levels were up to 55 times their maximum residue limits — set up to limit exposure to harmful rates of pesticides (5). Within Europe, Poland is perhaps the country with the largest amount of herbal cultivation. Around 20,000 farms, on ca. 30,000 hectares, produce around 50,000 tonnes of herbs from crops and 10,000 tonnes of herbs from wild collection. Here too pesticide levels have been detected within samples taken from herbs, raising concern for our medicinal herbs (6). 

While the presence of these chemicals might not indicate that pesticides were used in their production (as they are more often used in the production of food crops, surrounding the areas where the herbs grow) it is still concerning regarding the environmental impact this pollution has. But it should also concern herbalists, who wish to prescribe medicinal products, from a healthcare perspective. Insecticides, fungicides, herbicides may all affect our health in various ways. And while individual safety levels have been set for the environment, food and drink products, they do not consider the “cocktail” effect, that happens, through the combination of multiple pesticides. Various pesticide combinations can have additive effects, the various chemicals may interact with one another and lead to synergistic negative effects on human health (7).

Pesticides can affect our health through altering our gut microbiota composition and their metabolites and impact the intestinal mucosa and cell lining. All these changes can further negatively impact the health of those consuming these pesticides (8,9,10). Various health conditions are linked to increase exposure of pesticides, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, breast, bladder, colon, liver and brain cancer, asthma, diabetes, allergic reactions and leukaemia (11). Additionally, pesticides can cross the placental barrier (12), and prenatal exposure to pesticides has been linked to increase in birth defects as well as cognitive effects such as lowered IQ, perceptual reasoning and poorer memory (11). 

While some companies may test for artificial pesticide residue on herbs on a voluntary basis, all organically certified herbs must be tested for any contamination, giving a greater reassurance of herbs with minimal pesticide levels (a maximum of 0.01mg/kg). Choosing organic herbs means a lower risk of contamination with artificial pesticides for the herbs. But it also means that the land on which the herbs grow on will be protected from direct exposure to artificial pesticides, protecting the wildlife in that area. This applies to wild-harvested, as well as cultivated sources. To protect the health of the ecosystem is to protect the health of those in relationship with the ecosystem, no matter how far away these may be. 

A caveat: While artificial pesticides are banned with organic certified crops, some organic pesticides are allowed, to make things more complicated, there are various organic standards, some more or less rigorous. It is best to familiarise oneself with the different relevant standards. However, to do this here, would go beyond the scope of this article. Overall, it is evident that organic production relies on less pesticide use and organic products are less likely to contain concerning levels of pesticides. Both beneficial to environment and humans alike. 

How does all of this affect the potency of our herbs?

Studies show that organically grown crops tend to be higher in plant compounds such as polyphenols, phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids (14,20,21). And these are often the constituents associated with the health benefits gained by taking herbs.

Through our interaction with the soil, we can impact its health and microbial community, which directly impacts the health of individual plants and the ecosystem they are part of. By abandoning the use of pesticides and fertilisers, we can directly impact the levels of constituents present within the food and medicine we take, and we can avoid contamination, which may actually negatively impact our health. This shows that the quality of our care for the environment directly impacts the quality of the herbal remedies we make and take. Or as James Green writes in The herbal medicine maker’s handbook “My herbal extracts can never be any better than the quality of the herbs I begin with” (22, p.77).

Organic is just a certification, and if we all grew our own herbs, or would source them locally, perhaps we wouldn’t need certifications. When we grow herbs ourselves, we can see the quality of our relationship with the herbs, through observing the land they grow in, nurturing the plants and taking care when harvesting, processing and consuming them. And this will probably remain the most sustainable and transparent way of engaging with herbs, and perhaps offer the best and freshest quality. But for many people, this may either not be possible or desirable. Herbs come from all over the world. And there is less and less land available to more people, to simply wild harvest, or grow everything. And thus, we lose the ability to be fully aware of every step of the supply chain. While the organic certification does not present a perfect solution for all the problems discussed in this article, it does offer a lot in terms of assurance and transparency, that the herbs sourced come from a protected environment and are cultivated in a more sustainable way, than conventional herbs. 

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Wild ingredients have the potential to connect us physically, emotionally, and spiritually to our living planet. However, how can we be sure that plants harvested from the wild are done so responsibly with sustainable offtakes and care for natural habitats? How can we be sure that those undertaking the harvesting — often from remote and marginal communities — are treated with respect, and have a fair stake in the value chains emanating from their harvests? 

FairWild is a standard and certification scheme dedicated to ensuring that the harvesting and use of wild plants is good for nature and good for people, notably the harvesters. FairWild believes in the interconnectedness of nature and people in one complex ecosystem, and the fundamental connections between biodiversity health and well-being, and human health and well-being. It speaks to a vision of a world in which:

1. The sustainable harvesting of plants actively and inherently supports not only the species being harvested, but also the ecosystem in which it lives, helping to protect it from conversion
2. The people who undertake the harvesting are treated with respect and dignity and protected from abuse, traditional practices and knowledge are acknowledged and valued, and the harvesters are fairly compensated 
3. Business practices are fair and responsible, addressing asymmetries of power and providing assurances of traceability, quality and fairness to stakeholders. The team at FairWild headed up by Deborah Vorhies, here share some of their back story and talk about how they are making efforts to enable the power of the wild to enrich the herbal medicines sector.

How did FairWild get started?

Some of the consequences of the Balkan War in the late 1990s, were widespread economic collapse, including collapse of agricultural and wild harvesting sectors, large scale migration and depopulation of the countryside. Governments and key NGO players collaborated to form multistakeholder initiatives to revitalise the herbal industry. Two of these merged at the 2008 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona to form the FairWild Foundation.  In 2010 the FairWild Standard 2.0, combining the best of these approaches, was launched in order provide a global voluntary standard and certification system, uniquely focused on wild harvested plant species.

Fast forward to 2024 and the FairWild Foundation has released Version 3.0 of the Standard and is now operating with a small, distributed, and dedicated team focusing on broadening the adoption of the standard in key sectors such as herbal medicines to promote the sustainable harvesting and use of wild plants for human benefit.

What problem exactly is FairWild seeking to address?

The fundamental problem FairWild is seeking to address is the challenge to the future of our planet, our nature, as a complex system including the human dimension of nature. We see ourselves as enabling a reverse of biodiversity decline, enabling conservation of species and the prevention of landscape conversion through sustainable economic endeavour, and a positive support to enable respect and dignified livelihoods for those who do the harvesting.

Most standards for the responsible use of plants focus either on cultivated crops or are extensions of that approach, applied to wild harvesting, for example incorporating Fairtrade practices. 

Wild harvesting, however, is fundamentally different to cultivation. For example, while organic processes seek to limit or obviate damage to the environment, both noble and essential objectives, wild harvesting can offer so much more, by contributing to the conservation of both the species being harvested and the conservation of landscapes, reducing the likelihood of habitat destruction and landscape conversion by creating economic livelihood opportunities through wild harvesting. From a socio-economic perspective, the differences are even more stark. Agricultural workers tend to have some form of protection in most countries, through labour laws and standards, national and global. Wild harvesters, however, enjoy no such protections, and are often members of extremely poor, marginalised communities, and such individuals often the subject of abuse and modern slavery. Even Fairtrade solutions can sometimes be complicated in wild harvest circumstances where there may or may not be well-defined community practices and where individuals are self-organising and self-employed. The relationship between the wild resource and the harvester and indeed between the landscape and local livelihoods are key factors for wild harvesting that are not easily addressed by organic standards. 

The FairWild system, based on a detailed understanding of those dynamics, provides solid answers to questions from stakeholders — consumers, customers, traders, investors, regulators, international conventions, and so on — concerning ethical and responsible supply chains for wild harvested ingredients. 

What is the FairWild certification process?

The first step is the beginning of the relationship between FairWild and the operator FairWild will support and accompany the operator to prepare for an audit and, as needed, to develop the sustainability and resilience of their business.  We provide a suite of tools, starting from a Management Plan template, supported by a number of additional templates, such as a Species Risk Assessment, a Sustainable Harvesting Protocol, a Social Risk Assessment, and a Business Risk Assessment. Clients can either use these tools to development their Management Plans themselves if they need them, or are assisted by the FairWild team if they wish. The use of these tools is not mandatory, they exist to help the operators as needed. 

A next step, if requested, is a pre-audit assessment to ensure that the business is ready for audit. This assessment can identify any outstanding issues in advance. It is not a requirement but is a further element of support from the FairWild team. 

With a Management Plan in place, the business then needs to undergo a third-party audit by a FairWild-accredited independent certification body. If the audit is successful, an audit certificate is issued if the business is FairWild certified. 

Is FairWild certification only for endangered plants? What about common plants?

Jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi) is listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), while nettle (Urtica dioica) is not. Does certification differ for these plants and is it even necessary for nettle?

The certification process will be quite different. This is why a Risk Assessment is an important early step in the process. The assessment helps to develop a sustainable harvesting protocol. For an endangered species such as jatamansi, it will be more comprehensive in its review of both the local and the global situation and trade dynamics. For a common species, like nettle, the assessment will reflect a much lower risk regarding conservation of the species. 

For both endangered and common species, however, the risk assessment will also address the impacts of wild harvesting on conserving the broader landscape. Further, for both species, the assessment addresses the social and business dimensions of wild harvesting. Common plants — as they are abundant — can deliver significant social and business outcomes.

What are FairWild’s more recent developments that are important for the herbs?

Version 3.0 of the FairWild Standard was released at the end of last year. It is now clearer and more accessible, as well as being up-to-date in responding to current policy and industry best practice demands.

Our approach is evolving, too. As well as offering a window to the opportunities offered by sustainable wild harvesting, we have developed a more in-depth approach to risk. Risk in our sector, whether ecological or social, is so closely connected to both the geographic, botanical and modes of harvest, as well as being specific to the social and cultural dimensions, requires a very specific approach. Thus, as a small, specialised organisation, we can support our clients across value chains, to identify, understand and mitigate all sorts of supply chain risks.

Finally, with respect to wild harvesting operators, we have pivoted our approach in working with them to support and accompany them to build sustainability and resilience in their business. Our revised Management Plan approach and supporting tools puts those businesses at the centre of the certification process.  The third-party audit then assures stakeholders of what the business is already doing. 

To further support business, we have enhanced our audit capacity with more approved certification bodies, more intensive training of auditors, integration of the management plans into the audit process, and as appropriate and strategic, joint audits with other schemes.

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What is soil health?

This is a much debated topic but the general consensus is that it is ‘the capacity of soil to function as a living system, within ecosystem and land-use boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation.’ (4)

If you dig a little deeper soil health is largely measured by the nutrients it contains, its texture, its capacity to drain, and a whole host of other physical and chemical properties. More often than not, in modern agricultural and horticultural settings, and especially at gardening and allotment scale, the biological side of soil health is just a footnote, if not ignored completely. And yet it is the biological story that links most intimately and intrinsically to the gut microbiome and human health.

What is the biological story?

Where to start? It would seem logical to discuss biology in the context of plants given that ultimately our health depends on what we consume directly, or indirectly via consumption of animal products. But that misses the overwhelmingly vital and fundamental contribution of the Earth’s microorganisms. Indeed, plants owe their evolution and crucially their healthy functioning, to microorganisms. After all, the archaea, bacteria, fungi and protists were around for some 2 billion years before plants even existed (5). These tiny engineers and biogeochemists evolved, diversified, competed and cooperated to create practically every metabolic substance, interaction, and pathway underpinning all later forms of life.

A metabolic pathway is a series of biochemical processes in cells that lead to a certain product or change in the cell, including the manufacture and use of enzymes and even turning genes on and off. For example, around 3.5 billion years ago bacteria invented photosynthesis as a means of capturing energy from the sun to synthesise food from carbon dioxide and water (6). The by-product of this process was oxygen, which gradually oxygenated the oceans and later the atmosphere. 

In the late 1960s an American evolutionary biologist, Lynn Margulis, was researching the origins of eukaryotes, cells that contain a nucleus and various ‘organelles’ with specific functions such as the energy-producing mitochondria that are present in every cell of animals and plants (blood ‘cells’ excluded) (7). Margulis proposed that the organelles were once free-living, single-celled prokaryotic bacteria that had been consumed by larger, predatory bacteria. Doubtless, most mitochondria-type bacteria would have met their untimely death in this manner but some, it is thought, had the capacity to resist digestion and over time became an integral contributor to the cell. Importantly, the larger cell could rely on its partner cell for energy production and divert resources to other growth objectives. 

Margulis’s theory gained widespread support when in later decades researchers discovered that mitochondria possessed DNA that proved their bacterial origins. The same is the case for other organelles and also bacterial plastids that today form chloroplasts in plants. And so it would follow that humans also owe their existence and health to microorganisms.

How does the soil food web work?

Plants divert up to 30% of their hard-won photosynthetic metabolites to their roots where they seep as ‘exudates’ into the rhizosphere, the thin zone a few millimetres thick surrounding the roots (8). These exudates attract ‘designer’ consortia of bacteria and fungi specific to each plant type. The intense bacterial activity in the rhizosphere in turn attracts predatory protozoans and nematodes. In the ensuing feast, digestion and excretion, excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous and many vital trace elements are released in bioavailable form into the soil solution and these are taken up by the plants (1). In addition, certain fungi referred to as mycorrhizal fungi (myco = fungus, rhizae = root) make physical connections with plant roots and shuttle mineral nutrients and water to the plant in exchange for carbon sugar. Certain bacteria called rhizobia also make physical connection with the roots of legumes and form nodules in which they fix nitrogen into plant-available form.

Researchers have known about mycorrhizae since 1809 (9), and rhizobia since the 1880’s, and from the 1950’s onwards strains that can be economically grown in sufficient concentrations have formed an integral part of the fertiliser routine of many farms. But in the last decade researchers have also discovered that plants actively draw bacteria into their roots where they ‘hit’ them with secretions that break down their cell walls but without killing them. The rich nutrients from the cell walls are absorbed by the plant cells. The ‘naked’ bacteria in response secrete the plant growth-promoting hormone ethylene which causes root hairs to grow and through these tiny tunnels they escape back into the fertile soil solution where they reform their cell walls. Many return to relive the experience in what has become known as the ‘rhizophagy cycle’ (rhizo = root, phagy = eat) (10). Dr James White suggests the majority of a plant’s nutrition is obtained in this way.

Continuing research has since discovered that bacteria are being partitioned into every type of plant cell where it appears they play a symbiotic role in support of plant health including, amongst others, nutrition, immune functioning, and signalling.

Quite clearly then, soil microorganisms are fundamental to plant health. If a plant is to realise full robust health it follows it must be supported by a fully functioning soil food web and by extension a fully functioning foliage food web.

What happens when the food web isn’t working?

In soil degraded by ploughing or digging, or through the application of synthetic fertilisers and biocides, it is obvious that the major component of plant nutrition, evolved and perfected over 450 million years, is practically destroyed (11). Only bacteria survive, and then in depleted numbers and types. In these soils plants cannot attain robust health. They will still grow, even large if there is an abundance of bacteria-derived nitrate, but size is not a sign of good health.

The plant will expend precious energy attempting to acquire mineral nutrients in bioavailable form. However, ultimately the plant will be depleted of vital trace elements and be prone to disease and insect attack. And if the plant is depleted in mineral nutrients and vitamins, then those who eat that plant will also experience the effects of malnutrition. You can read more about the effects of modern agriculture on nutrition in our article “Crap food leads to crap health: Why do we put up with it?”

What are the implications for human health?

It is considered that this disconnect with nature, this catastrophic breakdown in the biological bridge between soil, plant and gut microbiomes, is in part responsible for the significant sharp rises in inflammatory ill-health and other maladies over the last few decades (ultra-processed foods, pesticide residues, and pollution doubtless being other causal factors. And overuse of antibiotics is the equivalent of reckless use of agricultural biocides). Looking at this from another perspective, if our food was the full ticket of essential nutrients and vitamins in natural bioavailable form we would be in far better health to cope with other stresses, biotic or abiotic that life throws at us. Our article “The impact of pesticides on the gut microbiome: A closer look at health risks” discusses this important issue.

And that goes equally for animals nurtured for human consumption. Farm animals are increasingly in need of mineral supplements, including vitamin B12, also called cobalamin due to the metal cobalt that is crucial to its formation. With the overuse of synthetic fertilizers and biocides it is considered that the microorganisms of the soil food web that support the pastures have been severely depleted. Given that it is specific bacteria alone that manufacture vitamin B12 (12), and research indicating that fungi help shuttle bacteria to and from the mineral ‘coal-face’, the depletion of both microorganisms in the soil has only one outcome for the gut.

Anything else?

Let us not forget the disruption to the seed microbiome or the effects of selective breeding. A human mother passes on her healthy gut microbiome to her newborn through natural childbirth, or at least that is what should happen, the biological principle being if mum thrived in her environment with her consortia of gut bugs then so too will the baby. But if mum’s gut flora and fauna are depleted then the baby will be deprived of the optimal start in life and may never recover that ground.

Selective breeding to express certain economically desired traits such as bigger, brighter blooms, less bitter brassicas, or more milk production also usually come at a cost to the natural microbiome. For example researchers working on drought-tolerant wheat varieties noticed a greater susceptibility to fungal pathogens.

Where to begin with caring for our land?

So there we are, looking out over our humble plot of land; it might be your farm, your allotment, or your garden, eyes opened to the possibility of doing something incredible. I’m not just talking about producing some of your own food and flowers. I’m talking about producing food of the highest nutrient density to secure your good health, and shrubs and flowers of such sensory brilliance that your general wellbeing is truly boosted. Even more, you could be doing your bit to drag some of that pesky atmospheric CO2 back into the ground where it can do some serious good for the rest of nature.

The last recorded statistics from 1998 show there were around 250,000 allotment plot-holders in the UK, and 23 million back/front gardens (2); that’s just over 500,000 hectares (a hectare is a plot of land 100m long by 100m wide). Applications for allotments after the coronavirus pandemic soared with some areas experiencing a 300% increase in applications for a plot (3). Add to that 5 million hectares of cropable arable land and you have a huge area with the potential to make a difference to health and climate. 

The stock-take: Understanding your soil

The first thing to do is to gain an understanding of how well, or poorly, your soil food web is doing. Remember, it is via the soil food web that virtually every plant gains its vitality. So have we provided the right habits and conditions for our tiny engineers and biogeochemists to operate at peak performance? Have we been nurturing them with the right foodstuffs i.e. composts, extracts, and teas? Indeed are the microbes there in the first place in decent numbers and diversity?

To understand the last point does not require a microscope, although if you can afford one it will little short of changing your life! Think of the Serengeti with its own complete food web. There are photosynthetic primary producers like trees, shrubs and grasses, and cyanobacteria and algae in lakes and rivers. Next along the food web you have the enormous numbers of primary consumers such as grazing zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, and waterbuck. These are followed (quite literally) by secondary consumers such as cheetahs and leopards. Eventually, you reach the apex predator, the lion. Now, if there is little primary production going on there will be little reason for primary consumers to be there. And if there are no, or very few, primary consumers there will be no, or very few secondary consumers, and so on. Make sense? Turning to your soil, take a spade and create a square cut the width of your spade and a spade deep. Lift it out and gently tease the soil apart.

How many worms can you count? A healthy soil will have at least fifteen to twenty worms in that volume. The worms can be imagined as the lions of your soil food web. They will be there if they have plenty of microarthropods, nematodes, protozoans, bacteria and of course fungi and decaying organic matter to feed on i.e. a full soil food web (I’m presuming that if the full complement of microbes is present and functioning well that water is in good supply). If your worms have gone AWOL (Absent Wormout Leave) you ought to consider the levels of decaying organic matter (food!) in your soil, and the microscopic critters missing in action (although usually there will be a depleted population of bacteria hanging on to what small reserves of carbon and nitrogen they can muster).

We do have to take into account the time of year and transient environmental conditions that might naturally affect numbers including winter cold, summer drought, spring waterlogging etc. But overall, we know that a full complement of microorganisms is the plant’s natural and preferred (evolved) means of obtaining nutrients and other life-support services. These are called secondary metabolites and include phytochemicals that help keep pathogens at bay, for example the usually abundant and reliable Pseudomonas bacteria contain species that secrete hydrogen cyanide that degrades fusarium fungi which causes many plants to wilt! Interestingly it is oftentimes these secondary metabolites that have medicinal effects in humans too. 

First response

There are other signs of a biologically depleted soil; compaction, weeds, waterlogging due to texture.

I should just explain what I mean by a biologically depleted soil because to some extent it depends on what you are trying to grow. It’s the old ‘square pegs in round holes’ dilemma. For most gardeners and allotmenteers the end-game is a general mix of vegetables, fruit, herbs, shrubs and/or flowers and this means a certain consortia of microorganisms that associate with those plants. But simply due to climate and geology it may be immensely difficult to achieve your goals without serious intervention. For example, if you want to grow potatoes on alkaline clay soils in the far west of the UK you would be better off building raised beds and filling them with organic-rich, sandy soil of low-ish pH and keeping your fingers crossed regards the temperature and rainfall. But those alkaline, wet, clay soils will be biologically brilliant for the plants nature has evolved via the fitted microorganisms to fill that niche, and for the animals that eat those plants.

Another key giveaway is the colour of your soil. A soil rich in decayed organic matter will be a dark chocolate brown or very dark grey colour. Anything pale (brown, orange, yellow, grey) will be lacking in essential foodstuffs for the primary consumers and this is where it all begins. This is the one time I would consider digging, to incorporate good quality, home-made compost. I would avoid municipal greenwaste and bagged so-called composts (really just mulches in my opinion which tend only to have bacteria within). It’s astonishing but really ought not to be surprising, the diversity of microbial life in a common or garden compost pile made of kitchen compost-caddy fillings, grass clippings, weeds, border prunings etc. As long as you have not added chemicals (including grass weed and feed) and have kept an eye on the browns versus greens (try and mix 50:50 for general applications), and have turned the pile once or twice for aeration, then I can assure you that after a year the bottom half metre or so of your compost pile will be a heaving soil food web metropolis.

You can read more about how to make your own compost in our article “how to make your own compost”. 

Maintenance and supercharging your soil

Once established with good levels of organic matter it is simply a case of feeding with the homemade compost as a surface dressing every month to six weeks and ensuring it stays moist in extended dry weather. Recall you are creating the right habitat with basic food supply to get the soil food web nutrient cycling going, and periodically drafting in more of the soil microbes best fitted to your plants.

It is also worthwhile taking a few big handfuls of your good quality compost and soaking it in a bucket of tepid rainwater. Give it a good swish-around with a stick to knock the microbes off their perches, then strain the biologically rich, dark brown solution through a 400-micron mesh. You have just produced a wonderful, balanced fertilizer plus microbes, that can be used undiluted as a root-drench, or even used through a sprayer as a foliar feed and protectant (the microbes will cover the leaves helping to ensure pathogens cannot establish a foothold through the antivirals, antibiotics and antifungals they secrete). 

In the early days of your rehabilitation (yes, I’m as much referring to the grower as to their soil) you could add a capful of seaweed extract if you had any doubt as to the nutrients immediately available to your plants. For arable farmers on the other hand, the ability to build up the basic levels of organic matter to kick start the biology is hampered by the lack of compost on the scale needed in a country with the least amount of natural woodland and hedgerow in Europe. We seem obsessed too with selecting breeds that maximize yields and minimize vegetative growth, all to make harvesting easier. Just think about all that free carbon and nitrogen given up by reducing wheat and rapeseed oil, for examples, from 6ft and 8ft heritage strains respectively to the thigh-high crops of today.

Sit back and enjoy the rewards of THEIR endeavours

As the fertility of your soil builds up you will find the microrganisms doing all of the work for you. They will fine-tune the structure of your soil, aerating through the development of micro- and macro-aggregates, they will connect with your plants through an assortment of fungi and bacteria offering a mind-blowing array of secondary metabolites and water. And as the soil food web operates at full capacity the nutrients your plants require will be made bioavailable in the optimal ratios.

As you munch through your nutrient-packed, low CO2-footprint lunch, looking out over your flower border brimming with wildlife, casually noticing that your asthma or psoriasis has improved, that your energy levels are greater, and how mentally relaxed you are, take a moment to consider also how much carbon you have sequestered in the process and what this might mean for the generations that follow.

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At one of the most stressful times of my life, I discovered growing food at a small permaculture garden in the city I was living. It changed everything. I met extraordinary people and began a journey connecting with a much bigger world. 

With over half the globe living in cities, there are plenty of practical arguments for urban food production. We need more good food, more habitat for wildlife, and as much carbon sequestration as we can manage. Another (often underestimated) reason is that urban growing is a vital way to reconnect with land and life. When you start to grow food in cities you start to pay attention in different ways. Critical questions about our built environment arise: What is that derelict plot next to Asda for? Why don’t we have fruit trees on our street? Why is that development project more important than the park? 

Tending gardens is a journey of becoming more intimate with life, and it can be a powerful tool to reclaim some agency. While cities (stacked with concrete-profit-siphons-for-speculative-finance) can be intensely alienating places, they can also be places where some of the most imaginative interventions happen. The limitations of brick, glass and unequal access to power, can occasion gorgeous horticultural resistance. Let’s explore some of the ways we can all do this.

Growing in your home

Many of us aren’t lucky enough to have access to outdoor garden space. But this doesn’t need to mean we can’t produce food for ourselves. If you have windowsills with enough sunlight, plants like tomatoes, salad greens and herbs are terrific low-maintenance plants to experiment with, while avoiding plants that prefer deeper soil like beans, cucumbers, courgettes and squashes. 

If you don’t have enough sunlight (or even if you do), I recommend growing mushrooms. They are absurdly easy. All that’s required is a starter spawn, either a plastic bag or a bucket, some straw from a pet shop and used coffee grounds from your morning cup or a local cafe. Oyster mushrooms are especially straightforward, beautiful and delicious. They can be ready to eat in as little as four weeks. For some detailed guides on growing different kinds of mushrooms, the FreshCap Mushrooms Youtube channel is a good place to start. After harvesting your mushrooms, which can fruit a number of times, the leftover straw (the substrate) is a great addition to your compost pile. 

This is the other subtle bonus of growing even a small amount in your home: it encourages you to pay more attention to the cycles of nutrients and energy that sustain us. For those of us who have a green waste council collection scheme, we are in fact giving away enormously energy and nutrient-rich material for free. Even without an outdoor space, it’s easy to turn our food waste into compost. The 1000 Worm Farmers project has a great detailed guide on how to do this using worms which you can purchase. A small adjustment to the kitchen routine means we don’t have to buy compost, rather we can cut our waste and forge new friendships with our invertebrate allies. 

Growing in small gardens or plots

If you do have access to one, you can produce an enormous amount of food in a small garden. The Instagram influencer Spicy Moustache (Alessandro Vitale) might be one of the most popular spokespeople for this at the moment. His videos show how, by using vertical space and layering different plants, as well as including mushroom logs, you can produce over 100kg of food in a year.

Alessandro’s also a great guide for thinking about the whole ecosystem. He plants pollinator-loving flowers that are also edible like calendula, cornflower and (a favourite of ours) nasturtium. He uses woodchip -which tree surgeons are always more than happy to give away!- to mulch his paths, eventually turning it into usable compost. He reuses old plastic bottles to cover his walls in strawberries and herbs. And he innoculates logs with mushroom spores which can sit quietly in an unused shaded corner. 

His is an intensely managed space, which requires frequent, consistent attention. Not every garden can be stewarded so carefully. It’s important to ask at the start, what is your relationship to the plants you’re growing likely to be? Will you have a few minutes every day to tend them? Will you have a few hours one day a week to tend them? Will you have barely any time to tend them at all? This might shape whether you decide to grow low-maintenance perennial plants, like herbs, berries, jerusalem artichokes, or kale. Or whether you might grow plants that are slightly needier, like tomatoes or cucumbers.

It’s also important at this point to recognise how growing in cities is a different thing to growing in the countryside. The heavily built-up city creates different opportunities and limitations to growing. To start with, we have access to resources that farmers can only dream of. Food waste is abundant, most cafes and restaurants will gladly give away their coffee and food scraps which can be turned into extremely rich compost. The ‘heat island effect’ of cities created by the concrete, brick and glass gives us an extra few degrees to grow in and usually a longer season. At the same time, other resources, like sunlight and space can often be scarce.

The sheer diversity of a city’s infrastructure makes it important to pay careful attention to the microclimate of each garden. Ours, for instance, has red brick on both sides and is south facing. It gets incredibly hot in the summer. Because of that, we grow tomatoes, cucumbers and other warmth-loving crops. When we try to grow lettuces, spinach and rocket in direct sun it almost always bolts (goes to seed) quickly. In other gardens, it’s the opposite: buildings cast shade and leafy greens, rhubarb and brassicas will fare better.

Growing in the community

If you don’t have access to a garden where you live, there are many other ways to get growing. It’s important not to gloss over some of the reasons why so many people don’t have access to land. One of the events that shaped world history more than most others was the enclosing of the commons and the mass dispossession of English people from their land from the 16th to the 18th century. It’s globally significant because it marked the beginning of capitalism and colonialism saw it repeated the world over. Since then land ownership has become extraordinarily unequal, and where people used to have rights to cultivate common land and smallholdings, now many of us are lucky to even have a small garden. 

One of the small concessions that peasants and the newly dispossessed won were the right to have allotments (1). Even though they have gotten smaller and smaller over the 20th century, allotments are still a vital route to connecting with the land. Everyone (with citizenship status) has the right to apply for one. 

Because of the alienating character of cities and the unequal distribution of land, more and more people are taking to guerilla gardening as a means of reconnecting and reclaiming agency. One of the beacons of this movement in the UK is Incredible Edible. It began in the small town of Todmorden in the north of England in 2008, and has since taken the world by storm. The idea is very simple: let’s grow food in unused public places and ask forgiveness rather than permission. When you walk through Todmorden today every verge, traffic island or over-wide pavement is heaving with plants. The loose group of volunteers meets every weekend and tends to the crops. Everyone is able to take as much as they need. Ellen Miles has recently published Get Guerilla Gardening, which along with the website, is a library of information on the history and how-to of guerilla gardening. You can use the Incredible Edible website to see if one of the 150 pop-up groups is near you.

This is a great intervention in our cities, but to grow lots of food, reliably, we’ll also need long-term community gardens. Typically these consist of council-owned land leased out to community groups. In my experience, these are vibrant places held together by committed and inspiring people. For many, they offer a gateway into the world of horticulture, or at the very least a break for overstimulated urban nervous systems. 

Community gardens vary in scale, scope and ambition. Some might offer small learning hubs for people to explore alternative forms of agriculture like permaculture, agroforestry or natural farming. Others might be sufficiently organised to be supplying veg box schemes or schools. In any case, they are often havens: small examples of the world we’d like to see. 

Growing in the city would be important even if we weren’t in a crisis. The connection to more than human life cycles can profoundly shape the decisions we make about how to live. And cities that don’t grow food often distort and exploit the countryside to provide for it, known in social theory as the ‘metabolic rift’ (2). Our cities also contain some of the most concentrated areas of economic destitution, and access to good, healthy food is a part of how communities can survive in otherwise brutal conditions (3).

But we are in a crisis. This summer El Nino is set to combine with global heating to take us into even more extreme heat conditions. Our global supply chains are not prepared for the shocks, and many large exporters of food are likely to need it themselves. Within our current economic system any shortages and rises in price will affect people with fewer resources more. Growing in the city is a way to strengthen food security for all of us, and, if done with accessibility as a priority, can help ameliorate the unjust impact of climate breakdown.

The post Growing in the city: How to do it and why we should appeared first on Herbal Reality.

To the outsider, the movement for sustainable food may seem like a coherent block of people. But there are important differences and disagreements about the best approach to growing food without destroying the planet. In this article, we’ll explore some of the most popular, and consider their unique contributions to the movement in turn. We’ll start with the broader labels like ‘organic’ and ‘regenerative’, and then focus on more specific sustainable farming methods like ‘permaculture’ and ‘biodynamic’.

Organic agriculture

If you thought of all of the schools of sustainable agriculture as a Venn diagram, the largest and most encompassing would be ‘organic’.

Organic agriculture has its roots in the early part of the 20th century but really gained prominence in response to the large-scale introduction of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides after World War II. Advocates of organic agriculture saw farmland as a living set of relationships that chemical additives tended to disrupt in harmful ways. What they proposed as an alternative is a return to non-synthetic agriculture, relying on fertility from livestock manure or plant-based compost and using forms of pest control that don’t introduce toxic chemicals. Today the term organic also refers to non-genetically modified food.

The organic view on the importance of living relationships has since been vindicated by soil scientists who have identified how plants produce sugars in exchange for nitrogen from soil bacteria. Artificial fertilisers disrupt this relationship, making plants dependent on them and reducing soil quality over time.

Regenerative agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is a proposal which seeks to proactively reform farming techniques to heal some of the damage caused by industrial agriculture. The Groundswell Festival in the UK describes 5 principles of ‘regen ag’. All of them focus in some way on building and protecting soil health. The popular Netflix film Kiss the Ground has been a rallying call for this movement. It urges farmers to adopt plant cover crops over the winter months, rotate their crops and mulch where possible in order to build soil health and sequester carbon. The film’s popularity speaks to the way regenerative agriculture is moving into the mainstream.

This is undoubtedly a good thing, but there are some important critiques of the movement. A recent paper by Bless, Davila and Plant summarises the concerns (1). They argue, regenerative agriculture “fails to credit Indigenous practices it draws from” and “tends to overlook the needs of farmers in the Global South and broader power inequality in the food system.” Many enormous multinational companies with terrible environmental records are adopting regenerative agriculture as a marketing tool. Bless et al. argue that this raises “concerns companies may be using regenerative agriculture to “greenwash” their image”. I have explored this in more detail on my website in my article “Land, visions, fantasies and farmers“.

Instead, food justice activists point to ‘agroecology’ as a just alternative.

Agroecology

Agroecology originates in South America and is deeply interwoven with both indigenous worldviews and radical political movements (6). Unlike the ‘regenerative agriculture’ or ‘organic’ labels, this movement prioritises thinking about the social relationships that shape the way we grow food. This includes questions like, who owns land? What kind of relationship do they have with it? And, is growing food contributing to farmers’ domination by commodity markets or freeing them from it? (7)

While regenerative agriculture is being popularised by high-budget films and large corporations, agroecology is spreading via grassroots social movements committed to justice and human freedom. La Via Campesina, a global union of land workers, founded in 1993, has been campaigning for a just farming system ever since. It now has branches in over 80 countries.

Peter Rosset and others document how the survival of Afro and indigenous relationships to land has shaped this movement in important ways, committing it to food sovereignty, healing human relationships with land, and building a powerful political movement (2). In another recent paper, Emma Cardwell points to the ways that Global North countries like the UK can learn from this movement to decolonise our own food system (3).

These broad umbrella categories demarcate important differences in priorities and ambitions in the movement. At the same time, there are more specific differences emerging in approaches to cultivation.

You can learn more about the differences between organic and regenerative farming in our article Regenerative farming vs organic farming.

Biodynamic

‘Biodynamic’ is perhaps the one most shrouded in mystery. A small subsection of organic food is certified as biodynamic, and, in my experience, most people aren’t certain of what this label means.

Biodynamic farming is one of the older Global North methods for growing food sustainably. It is a school of thought founded by the controversial (and racist) German polymath Rudolf Steiner, upon whose philosophy Steiner schools are based. Steiner’s vision of biodynamic agriculture contains elements which resonate with all the other alternatives to agriculture we are discussing here. There are also aspects of his philosophy that many scientifically-minded horticulturists struggle with.

To start with the uncontroversial elements, biodynamic farming insists on perceiving the farm as an entire living system. All of the parts of the farm should be working together as a synchronised whole. This includes a particular attention to the health and fertility of the soil. In an ideal system, a farm would be able to generate enough fertility from the manure of livestock to avoid importing any from elsewhere. Steiner also advocates planting according to lunar and solar cycles. The length of days and position of the sun has a demonstrable impact on the development of plants, and, there is also evidence to suggest that when the moon is waxing, plants are able to more easily draw up water from the soil. 

All of this lines up with the aims of many other alternative methodologies like permaculture or natural farming which we will explore later. Where Steiner veers into the mystical, many practitioners who like to base their decisions on verifiable evidence struggle (4). Steiner proposes eight ‘preparations’, variations of buried stuffed animal remains, which he believes channel “cosmic forces” into the soil.

Permaculture

Permaculture has become a much more widely implemented and developed growing methodology. A contraction of ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’, permaculture was conceived of by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison in the 1970s. After observing the havoc wreaked by industrial-scale agriculture on the ecosystems of Tasmania, they synthesised a range of alternative practices. They drew from indigenous practices around the world to create a design system enabling more food to be produced, within more resilient ecosystems, minimising the amount of effort required.

Since its founding, permaculture has bloomed into a worldwide network of teachers and practitioners. Introduction to permaculture courses are widely available, and a vibrant network of experts, speakers and workshop leaders has emerged. This has opened up the movement to criticism as it is largely residents of the Global North making money from knowledge produced in the Global South, and, although Holmgren and Mollison were explicit about the indigenous origins of their work, many contemporary practitioners forget or neglect to cite these origins. All of this can be said to amount to a neocolonial form of cultural appropriation.

There are a few techniques that have become iconic of permaculture in practice. The preference for spirals and circles over square beds, the raised herb spiral creating many different microclimates, the keyhole raised bed and swales, and mounded ditches horizontal to a slope which help capture and store rainwater. Permaculture also tends to incorporate perennial plants into the growing system. These are plants like trees, shrubs, vines and berry bushes which live longer than one year. The incorporation of perennial plants means that the soil doesn’t need to be disturbed every year and reduces the amount of time required to sow new plants.

All of this finds its highest form in the ‘forest garden’. As Max Paschall traces, the forest garden is an ancient method of stewarding land for abundant food production. In its modern iterations, it involves thinking of the garden in seven vertical layers: from the top down you have the canopy, with a dwarf fruit or nut tree understory, followed by vines, shrubs, herbs, and finally mushrooms and annual vegetables on the lowest layer. As the brilliant Future Ecologies exploration of Native American forest gardens in North America observes, these sorts of ecosystems mimic the natural succession of landscapes into a forest and as a result are incredibly resilient. 150 years without any direct stewardship and the temperate food forest they explore is still thriving. 

Agroforestry

Food forests and permaculture have a lot in common with another burgeoning farming movement: agroforestry. With similar aims and ambitions agroforestry seeks to expand the scale of a forest garden, weaving trees with other forms of agriculture, especially livestock.

In the UK, the persistence of hedgerows is arguably the most mainstream form of agroforestry (5). The Agroforestry Research Trust has formed a network of projects implementing agroforestry. The practice survives on much larger scales in other parts of Europe however. In southwest Spain and parts of Portugal, the Dehesa region comprises thousands of oaks and an enormous variety of cattle. 

There are many arguments in favour of agroforestry systems, including carbon sequestration, controlling soil erosion, creating habitat for wildlife, reducing the need for artificial fertiliser, and a wider range of possible crops.

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Composting is good for the planet, free, easy and gives you high quality compost for your plants. This article shares how to do it.

We should all be composting! It’s good for the planet. When food waste goes to landfill (as 6.6 million tonnes of household food does in the UK (1)) it releases methane, a greenhouse gas several times more potent than CO2. It’s free, and home composting means high quality compost for your plants without the price tag. It’s also fun, and fascinating to watch food and waste change state in one of the most important natural processes there is.

Composting is incredibly easy. You put everything biodegradable in a pile and leave it alone. That’s it. If you want to do it quickly and create a really healthy mix, there are a few more little things to know that will help. Let’s go through it step by step.

Step 1: Find or build your compost container

Many gardeners opt for the ‘dalek’ compost bin (so named for its shape). These are sleek, plastic bins with removable lids to put food waste in and a side panel to take compost out. They are discrete, protected and simple. The downsides are, they are made of plastic, and it is difficult to keep the compost inside aerated.

For a cheaper recycled option, you can make compost bays with pallets. To make one bay you’ll need three pallets: a back and two sides. To make two bays, you’ll need five. These can be lashed together with some rope. The benefit of having two bays is that you can easily turn the compost (more on this later). They do tend to take up more space though.

If you don’t have access to outdoor space, you can still compost your food waste with a worm bin. You can order worms online (or ask friends to relocate some of theirs). Containers can be homemade with old drawers or bins. Or you can buy one. Worms are a bit fussier about what they’ll eat. They don’t like oil, onions or citrus and they need something gritty like egg shells to help them digest their food.

Step 3: Start to fill it

Before loading it up with food and garden waste creating a foundation of twigs and sticks will help keep your pile aerated.

When putting food or garden waste in you want to also add cardboard and/or woodchip. This is because good decomposition requires a balance of what’s called ‘greens’ and ‘browns’. Greens refer to food waste and green garden waste that is high in nitrogen. Browns refers to cardboard of woody material that is higher in carbon. If you have too much green waste if your compost starts to smell, and too much brown if it starts to look dry, inactive and filled with woodlice.

As well as balancing greens and browns it is also important to keep it moist and aerated. If it becomes too waterlogged it will produce anaerobic bacteria that can be harmful to soil ecosystems. If it becomes too dry it won’t be able to decompose properly. Keep a non-leaching plastic cover over the top to regulate how much water gets in. 

Lastly, leave out animal products to avoid attracting vermin. In some places it may also be advisable to leave out any cooked produce, however this isn’t always an issue.

Step 4: Knowing when it’s ready and processing the compost

As a general rule of thumb, the longer you leave compost the better. I would suggest at least 3 months after the last addition. Compost should no longer be warm from decomposition and should smell good like the earth.

To process the compost you may want to buy (or make with chicken wire) a sieve and filter out the larger bits of wood or undecomposed matter which can go back in the next batch. What you’re left with will be a great addition to any vegetable beds and potting mix.

It’s important to remember that compost is not quite soil, and if you’ve been adding food waste it will be extremely fertile. Be cautious using it to raise new plants and in potting mixes. Add some inert matter like sand and coir to give it structure and lower the nutrient density.

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There’s a growing enthusiasm and interest in the concept of regenerative agriculture, but also a lot of confusion. Enthusiasm, because what’s not to love about a way of working with the land that claims to lock carbon in the soil, and work with people and planet in mind? Confusion because ‘regenerative’ is subject to wide-ranging interpretations. It’s a term that could equally mean tokenistic changes and business as usual, which leads to nothing more than ‘greenwashing’. Or it can mean a wholesale shift in farming practices that will result in restored ecosystems and sustainable livelihoods. 

For those of us within the organic movement, it’s equally a moment of celebration and trepidation.

Celebration, because the word regenerative is reaching new ears, and if taken seriously and executed properly, it could result in the very same principles and practices that underpin the organic movement, being brought to life. If regenerative helps move our food system in a positive direction for climate and nature, then that’s clearly an excellent result. To that point, there is also trepidation, because if regenerative fails to live up to its most ambitious and progressive claims, it risks distracting the world from the real solutions at a moment in history when we have no time to waste.

At the true heart of both the organic movement and the regenerative movement, we see a similar set of principles, striving for a food system which benefits the world around us. Those who are serious about ‘regenerative’ living up to its true promise tend to be aligned with the organic movement and are often some of organic’s greatest supporters.

The term ‘regenerative’ was first coined in the US by an organic pioneer – Robert Rodale. Regeneration International was set up by Andre Leu – the former president of IFOAM Organics International, which is the umbrella organisation for the worldwide organic movement. Some of the newly emerging academic studies of regenerative farming are being carried out on farms that are already certified organic and being farmed by organic farmers who have a passion for innovation and experimentation. If you read the definition of organic agriculture, it’s so closely aligned with the best of regenerative that they’re virtually synonymous:

“Organic Agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems, and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic Agriculture combines tradition, innovation, and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and good quality of life for all involved.”

If they have so much in common, what’s the difference?

Broadly, this might simply be about optics. For a non-organic farmer who believes in the principles of regenerative, they might see organic standards and regulations as restrictive and prohibitive. For those within the organic movement these same standards and regulations are seen as a floor not a ceiling, and a useful tool to help differentiate themselves in the market and protect against ‘greenwash’. But even at the entry level, organic takes a systems-based approach that works within natural cycles – farmers have got to be able to do this in order to keep their organic certification for the long term.

For example, organic farmers must find natural ways to build soil fertility and manage pests and diseases because they’re not allowed to fall back on short-cuts such as artificial fertilisers or routine use of antibiotics to maintain soil and animal health respectively. The standards are a baseline (albeit a high one) – they ensure that there is a consistency to what someone can expect as a minimum when they see something is certified organic. In reality, many organic farms and businesses will naturally go above and beyond these baseline standards.

For a farm starting from scratch, going organic can be hard and can take years. Regenerative offers an opportunity for farmers to work to organic principles straight away. Perhaps the steady adoption of regenerative practices might act as a gateway to an organic whole-system approach. The logical next step might be to gain organic certification to benefit from the market opportunity and established consumer trust.

What’s the role of standards in matching principles with practice?

When organic standards and regulations don’t fully reflect organic principles, there’s always room for improvement. Nowhere is this more evident than in the United States where their National Organic Program has deviated so much from the vision of the organic movement that it’s led to a splintering of the movement there. It’s also one of the reasons that regenerative has emerged out of the US context because organic regulation stopped going far enough.

Fortunately for European consumers, the rules are much stronger here. At the Soil Association we work tirelessly behind the scenes to help those writing the rules to keep the laws that govern the marketing of organic products as close to the organic principles as possible. But sometimes, legal and political compromises mean that organic rules don’t go as far as they should – as we see in the States. This is one of the key reasons the Soil Association has always had our own higher standards that go above and beyond the law. Everyone certified to the SA standards not only has to meet the baseline law, but they also must meet additional requirements in important areas like animal welfare and packaging. If the law gets weakened, our Standards can ensure that not only consumer expectations are consistently safeguarded, but that important issues are being addressed and positive impacts are continuing. They’re an important backstop that helps ensure the organic market is generally led by the movement, not the other way around. 

The same is true for some other independently set standards – like Fairwild. The FairWild Standard is designed to ensure the sustainable collection of wild plants and the protection of those who collect and trade them. The standard protects plant species and local wildlife from the effects of over-harvesting, and makes sure local collectors enjoy fair working conditions.

The organic farming movement

There is a culture of innovation and continuous improvement in both regenerative and organic. Can combining efforts be a win-win for everyone at a global scale?

Organic is often wrongly type-cast as simply a label on the shop shelf. But the success of the organic market is underpinned by a whole movement – one that is continually innovating and developing all over the world.

There’s an international society of organic farming research (ISOFAR) that facilitates global co-operation in research, education and knowledge exchange. There’s also INOFO – the Inter-continental Network of Organic Farming Organisations that links around 2.5 million farming families around the world to discuss practices and challenges and celebrate successes. It represents the rich diversity of the grassroots organic movement and puts the voice of the farmer at the centre. Both organisations, and around 700 others are part of the IFOAM family – International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements – a unique umbrella organisation that brings together all those with an interest in organic, and which demonstrates the organic principles of health, ecology, fairness and care in action.

Whilst there’s a lot to like about the attention that regenerative agriculture is putting on the need to transform our food and farming systems, we shouldn’t be naïve to the way the regenerative word is being co-opted by some. Ultimately, we need wholesale systems change to address the challenges of our times, and the organic movement offers a beacon of hope and real-life examples of how this can be done already.

On a practical level today, if policymakers, businesses, citizens and consumers want to show their support for the best of regenerative agriculture, I would confidently say that the easiest way to do so is by supporting organic.

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Can growing food really help face the waves of crises we face today? There’s a movement emerging that answers with a loud ‘Yes!’. It is tucked away in community gardens feeding people and creating sanctuaries for wildlife in our cities, in the country where community-supported agriculture and new models of agroforestry are pioneering regenerative ways of growing food at scale, and in the boundaries between, where cooperative market gardens bring together the best of both.

The movement goes by many names depending on scale, ambition and philosophy. Some call it Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture, Biodynamic or Natural Farming. All are part of what we can call agroecology, and all reject the premise of the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ of the last 70 years that we need vast quantities of pesticides, artificial fertilisers and genetically modified crops to feed ourselves. The people doing it, however, see their work as about much more than growing food. The crises of climate change, ecological destruction, health, inequality and poverty show clearly that something fundamental about how we organise society needs to change. While it’s not clear exactly how this transformation will evolve, this movement gestures towards a new system entirely.

The change starts with the land and ripples outwards. Fundamentally, agroecology means building up the fertility of the land rather than depleting it. It means protecting and adding to soil health, creating habitats for wildlife and breaking industrial agriculture’s dependence on pesticides and artificial fertilisers. It also often also involves alternative ethical approaches to growing that include acknowledging and respecting the whole ecosystem, supporting existing relationships to thrive and shifting our relationship with the rest of the living world from an extractive one to a collaborative one.

Can we live off agroecology?

These approaches get the goods in terms of yield, human health and ecosystem resilience. On small, carefully managed plots, you find far higher yields than on industrial-scale sites (1). A healthier soil food web also means higher nutrient density in crops, something we have lost up to 40% of in the last century (2). Small-scale community growers also grow a much higher range of plant varieties. The range of foods available to us in supermarkets is minuscule compared to the diversity of varieties that we could grow. We have 3,000 known varieties of apples cultivated on the British Isles, for example, whereas most supermarkets sell 3 or 4 New Zealand varieties (3). This is how community food production maintains our genetic diversity of plants. In countries already facing dramatic weather events caused by climate change, there is significant evidence showing agroecological farms are much more resilient (4).

Agroecology offers a desperately needed answer to the crisis in ecosystem diversity. We have seen an average of 70% decline in wildlife in the last 50 years (5), and a 64% decline in insects in the last 20 (6). By growing flowers for pollinators, and including wild areas in the garden where insects can live, local growing might be able to bolster these numbers. Below ground, our soil ecosystems are also in need of support. Not only does industrial-scale ploughing of fields and dependence on fertiliser emit large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, but it also degrades the soil food web on which our plants depend. Some estimates have predicted that if we don’t start practising regenerative agriculture at scale our soils might only have 60 years left of harvests in them (7).

Food, class inequality and social transformation

Many in this movement are also motivated by the injustices surrounding who has access to healthy, sustainably grown, organic food. As of January 2023, almost 20% of people in the UK are experiencing food insecurity. That’s struggling to access mass-produced, non-organic, non-regeneratively farmed fruit and veg. There is little data on access to good quality food, grown well, but with some organic ranges double the price of non-organic, you can see how food is an issue deeply related to class inequality (8). Some studies have shown how urban agriculture can help mitigate food inequality and open up access, and many growers offer tiered solidarity pricing systems (9). Yet there are limits to how much this can help without transforming the wider system that produces the inequality in the first place. 

At the same time, agroecology has the potential to create cultural conditions that might incubate significant challenges to this wider system. Reconnecting with the cycles of life – the source of our sustenance – often changes the way people think of themselves, their place and their role in the world. This kind of ecological consciousness-raising could lead to deeper social transformations. 

For instance, one of our biggest barriers to system change is a widespread sense of powerlessness. Rediscovering how to grow food is a potent antidote to this. The modern world is complicated: decisions that shape our lives are made elsewhere, technology has become so intricate that we cannot know how it works, and often we work in large businesses over which we have little control. This experience of alienation often ripples out into a wider sense that we are too dependent on the current system to change it.

Learning to provide nourishment for ourselves, our communities and the ecosystem leaves people with a new feeling of capability and empowerment. It unlocks the feeling that we don’t need to rely on a destructive food system, and that, by working together we can start to disentangle ourselves from some of the larger harmful systems that operate in the world. Successful movements across the world draw much of their strength from reclaiming control over their food. In my experience with community gardening, connecting with the land unlocks a powerful confidence.

Healing ourselves and our communities

In a similar vein, connecting with the plants and ecosystems that produce food can be a deeply healing process. The process of nurturing other life, the calm of a garden, and the gentle physical exercise can nourish damaged parts of ourselves. This is the premise of the growing practice of Horticultural Therapy (10). As our physical and mental health improves, so does our sense of what we deserve. As seasoned community organiser’s tell us, raising expectations is key to changing society (18).

Paying close attention to the cycles and relationships of life in the garden can also inspire other ways of relating to one another. One perennial example that people notice upon entering the world of growing, is just how much you have to give away. Every spring, communities of local growers will organise seed swaps and events to share plants, labour and harvests. The abundance of the natural world can guide us into sharing more generously with each other. 

This ethic of sharing might start as a small, friendly gesture, but could it be part of a wholesale cultural shift? Robin Wall Kimmerer, indigenous scholar of the Potawatomi in North America, describes the way that the gifts of the living world shaped her people’s culture of generosity, gratitude and abundance (11). As Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe) of the Diné puts it “the earth’s economy is radical abundance and fearless generosity” (19). Many writers and theorists of alternative economies suggest that economies based on sharing and gift-giving -rather than hoarding and scarcity – will be vital to staying within planetary boundaries (12). It all suggests that agroecological projects could be producing embryonic versions of a very different kind of economy.

Is this actually feasible?

So, growing food can transform these larger systems that shape our lives. But there are also limits to what any project can achieve alone. Trying to grow food for the community, something that has an enormous range of positive impacts, is difficult in our current economic system. In 2020 a report showed that 60% of young people trying to enter the world of agroecological growing could not access the land they needed to do so (13). As author and land-rights campaigner Guy Shrubsole has pointed out, the UK has some of the most unequal distribution of land in the world with 1% of people owning 50% of the land (14). Entering the world of agroecology makes visible these otherwise invisible issues of power and access. 

This difficult reality doesn’t have to lead to resignation. There are many examples worldwide of people coming together to challenge similar systemic issues. One of the most successful, the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in Brazil has shown how organising around food sovereignty can be the seed out of which a whole new system can grow. Across large parts of the country, 350,000 families have reclaimed abandoned and mismanaged land, built 400 cooperative enterprises and demonstrated just how exactly we can create viable alternative economies starting literally from the ground up (20).

But this doesn’t happen automatically. Agroecology and regenerative agriculture aren’t intrinsically transformative, they contain radical potentials (15). As one scholar puts it, “the question is whether agroecology will be stripped of all but its most simplistic technical content and left as an empty concept that can mean almost anything to anyone, much as happened decades earlier with ‘sustainable development’”. Their conclusion is that the transformative nature of agroecology needs to be fought for. Another scholar, Emma Cardwell, professor of economic geography at Lancaster University, makes the persuasive point that the English agroecological movement can learn a lot about directing its energies towards lasting systemic change from the Latin American iterations of it (16).

The MST went on to co-found the global movement for land justice, known as La Via Campesina. In the UK, the Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) is our own branch. The LWA gives a voice to our agroecological movement and is our channel through which to effect long-term structural change. And it depends on all of the small-scale, carefully crafted community food-growing projects that offer persuasive examples for how things could and should be different.

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Growing herbal medicines is a very enriching practise, which supports our wellbeing in its own way. This article gives you top tips for when you are starting your medicinal herb garden.

Growing medicinal herbs is one of those rare things we can do in life that is truly wholesome and beneficial. It is good for the land, it is good for the birds and the bees, and it is good for our health and spirits.

And the great thing is that for all that they give, they ask for relatively little in return. Most medicinal herbs are easy to grow and so long as you follow a few key principles, you can create a stunning herb garden in no time.

This article explores some of the main themes to think about when starting a medicinal herb garden for the first time. It is by no means a comprehensive guide but will hopefully give you some ideas to go away and explore in more detail.

Which medicinal herbs to grow?

With so many options to choose from, how do you choose which herbs to grow? A good starting point is to do some research into which herbs are best suited for the climate and growing space you have and to consider which medicinal herbs you may want or need in your life.

Is your garden sunny or shady? Is there a specific condition you would like to treat? Or are there specific herbs you feel drawn to? You’ll normally find there are a few key herbs that are perfectly suited for both you and your garden.

It may be that you are someone who suffers from nervous tension and happen to have a shady garden – a perfect opportunity to grow skullcap, lemon balm and St. John’s wort. Or perhaps you have rich, loamy soil in a sunny garden and just want herbs that can be harvested for herbal teas, in which case you can’t go wrong with the likes of chamomile, fennel and catnip.

Or do you just love bright colours and aren’t so bothered about its uses; if so, fill your garden and brighten your life with the oranges and yellows of calendula, California poppy and meadow arnica.

Make your herbs feel at home

It always helps to have some knowledge of a plant’s natural habitat and – where possible – to make those plants feel at home by mimicking or matching some of those conditions in your garden.

Obviously, the easiest approach is to grow native plants that are already very much at home in our own climate. The likes of marshmallow and meadowsweet, for example, will cope just fine with the wettest and frostiest of British winters.

But if you are growing medicinal herbs such as lavender, thyme or sage, which are native to the Mediterranean, it helps to grow them in a warm, sheltered spot, and maybe even add some sand into your soil to improve drainage and prevent waterlogging.

South-facing walls of a house can create remarkably warm micro-climates that can be perfect for sun-loving herbs.

Some herbs grow in very specific environments. Gentians, for example, are most commonly found growing in high mountain pastures. Obviously, it’s hard to replicate mountain conditions in an English garden, but you can mimic some of the mountain environment by creating a rock garden and growing your gentians somewhere that is shaded from the heat of the midday sun.

Similarly, there are quite a few woodlands herbs that naturally grow in the shade of trees in rich, loamy soil that is the result of many years of rotting autumn leaves. Goldenseal, Himalayan valerian and black cohosh are examples of herbs that thrive when they are grown in shaded areas with compost made from leaf litter.

Understanding the life cycle of the plants

When choosing medicinal herbs to grow it helps to know the difference between annual, biennial and perennial plants. The majority of medicinal plants are perennial. In other words, they live for many years; their foliage usually dies back in the winter and grows back in the spring.

Perennials can be slow growing and need plenty of care when they are young, but once established they require little maintenance other than occasional weeding, watering and cutting back.

Annual plants complete their life cycle in one growing season. They are reliant on seeds for their survival, and as a result they tend to be prolific self-seeders. So, although annual herbs such as German chamomile, calendula and California poppy only live for one season, they can easily be encouraged to return year after year simply by allowing the seeds to mature and fall onto the beds where they have grown.

Biennials are plants that take two growing seasons to complete their life cycle. Angelica, mullein and burdock are examples of biennial plants; they usually produce a rosette of leaves in the first year and flower in the second. Like the annuals, you’ll need to sow fresh seed every year if you want your favourite biennials to be in flower every summer.

Land preparation and medicinal properties

There are many ways to prepare land for growing medicinal plants – too many to cover here, but in essence the main principle is to encourage natural soil health through organic practices such as using a mulch or cover crop and adding compost where appropriate.

The no-dig method, as taught by Charles Dowding, is a favourite of ours – partly because it doesn’t disturb the ecology of the soil, and also because it can significantly reduce the amount of time spent on weeding.

But before you order a trailer of rotted manure to pour over your lawn (a common no-dig practice), it is important to consider the effect of soil nutrition on the medicinal properties of the plants. Many of the healing compounds found in medicinal herbs are produced in response to environmental stress or external threats.

For example, lavender grown at a high altitude in more nutrient depleted soil has higher levels of essential oils – most likely a result of having to tolerate greater solar-radiation and nutrient stress. So it’s not always best to grow herbs in rich, loamy soils as we would with our vegetables; plants that are grown in poor soils may be smaller in size but can produce much higher quality herbal medicines.

Interestingly, research has shown that herbs grown using organic practices (i.e. without artificial fertilisers), contain higher levels of secondary plant phytonutrients such as the protective polyphenols and flavonoids. The same applies to herbs grown in wild settings. So when it comes to preparing your land, sometimes less is more.

Propagation

Once you’ve chosen your medicinal herbs and prepared your land, it is time to introduce the plants. Essentially, you have three main options; you can start by sowing seed, you can take cuttings from existing plants, or you can buy new plants (either potted of bareroot).

There is something very satisfying about raising plants from seed; it helps create a stronger relationship with the plants that can add another layer of potency if and when you use them to prepare herbal medicines.

Looking after your seedlings requires patience and care, and most herb growers will agree that the more you give to the plants, the more you receive in return.

There are of course some disadvantages when growing from seed; not everyone has suitable indoor growing space, and it takes longer to reach maturity. Many perennial herbs, such as echinacea, wild bergamot and St John’s wort, will only start to produce flowers in their second year. So, if you prefer not to wait that long and are willing to spend more money, then buying mature plants may be the best solution.

Keeping your plants in good health

Having raised your seedlings or purchased your plants and planted them in a suitable location in your garden, ensuring that tender plants are protected from late frosts, all you really need to do is keep on the top of the weeds, water them when needed, and protect them from potential pests.

Most herbs are quite resilient and suffer few problems with pests and diseases, but there are a few potential issues to keep an eye on. Seeds waiting to germinate can be a tasty snack for birds and mice; young seedlings can be susceptible to slugs and aphids; and herbs of all sizes can attract hungry rabbits and deer.

Protecting the plants with some kind of physical barrier (traps, mesh cages or fencing) is an effective way to keep larger creatures away. And there are many organic practices for dealing with smaller critters; aphids, for example, can easily be controlled by releasing ladybird or lacewing larvae – both available from Dragonflii.

If you do experience repeated issues from certain pests, you can normally find herbs that are resistant to the pest in question. For example, slugs appear to have no interest in valerian, licorice mint and sweet woodruff. And both deer and rabbits have no interest in lovage, thyme or mullein.

But if you are growing mullein, keep an eye out for the brightly coloured ‘mullein moth caterpillars’, which – as the name suggests – are big fans of the mullein’s soft, juicy leaves. Left to their own devices they can decimate a plant in no time.

When to harvest medicinal herbs

The interval between sowing and harvest can vary enormously. Annuals, by their very nature, are quick to grow and can only be harvested in the first year. German chamomile, for example, starts producing flowers in less than 3 months from sowing. But some perennials take a lot longer; Panax ginseng, for example, should be grown for 6 years before its roots are ready for harvest.

The harvest time and frequency will of course depend on the part of the plant that is harvested. Leaves, flowers and seeds can be harvested repeatedly without any serious detriment to the plant; harvesting roots on the other hand is less sustainable, usually requiring the whole plant to be uprooted and new plants grown in its place.

That said, it is possible, for example, to dig around the base of a marshmallow plant to harvest some of the surface roots without killing the plant. And if you only have a few precious echinacea plants, you don’t need to use the roots – their seeds are also packed with the same immune-boosting tingly alkylamides, and when ground up into a powder make a surprisingly delicious tea.

Once harvested, there are many ways to process them into different herbal preparations, but this is a big topic – one that we will look at in more detail later in the year as it is a special skill to harness all the healing vitality of medicinal herbs.

Until then, happy growing!

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