The manner that we talk about what herbs do within the human body is important. A lot of people careless say "what can x do for me?" and "what herb is good for my problem?" or even worse yet "what is y good for?" You might be wondering, what's wrong with any of that? The issue is: Herbs do not grow solely for us and our problems. In our days of overconsumption and industrialization, it's a very important point of how we think about the herbs...
But let's recall the times of the spice trade. People loved and praised the spices so much. Their fragrant smells. Their lively flavors. And their preservative factors…What these plants could do for them. Their supposed love for these spices was so strong that it incited a greed-fueled ambition. European explorers went in search of their own direct course to the spices. They didn't want to deal with the middleman seller any longer...
In our day and age, similar actions have been seen. If you or someone you know is engaging in the practice of foraging and wildcrafting, be sure that you all use mindful and ethical practices that keep the earth in mind. Over the years, the populations of many herbs have been wiped out or been decimated at the hand of those who learned about their beautiful medicinal qualities. This causes disruption in the biomes they exist in, as the plant life in an area affects the surrounding populations of plants and animals. The thing is, there's always another herb with very similar properties. There is no need to overharvest one particular plant species.
So, it isn't about what the herbs can do for us (that is a dangerous distortion of perspectives). It's about what is this herb's role in the world (and what is my individual role in the world)?
Excerpts from The Basics of the Herbal Arts Patreon course
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