 More than 400,000 tones of medicinal and aromatic plants are traded annually, with around 80% of the species harvested from the wild. Almost 70,000 species are involved, many of them are in danger of over-exploitation and even extinction through over-collection and habitat loss.
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat tothe conservation of nature.
Review
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 What is a certified wild crop?
National Organic Program
§ 205.2 Terms defined
Wild crop. Any plant or portion of a plant that is collected or harvested from a site that is not maintained under cultivation or other agricultural management.
Cultivation. Digging up or cutting the soil to prepare a seed bed; control weeds; aerate the soil; or work organic matter, crop residues, or fertilizers into the soil.
Why is this important?
§ 205.207 Wild-crop harvesting practice standard. (a) A wild crop that is intended to be sold, labeled, or represented as organic must be harvested from a designated area that has had no prohibited substance, as set forth in § 205.105, applied to it for a period of 3 years immediately preceding the harvest of the wild crop. (b) A wild crop must be harvested in a manner that ensures that such harvesting or gathering will not be destructive to the environment and will sustain the growth and production of the wild crop. |
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How we are helping create a solution: Because we harvest seeds from our certified wild plants, we can grow the plants organically and return them to their ecosystem, restoring environmental integrity while creating income opportunity for ourselves and demonstrate ways for others. It is slow, time consuming work and it requires a huge commitment to the land. We have restored the following species to their native Ozark Habitat: Mondara Fistulosa, Witch Hazel Golden Seal Echinacea Purpurea Spice Bush Elderflower We are working on: New Jersey Tea Echinacea Angustifolia Butterfly Milkweed St. John's Wort We are developing a demand for the following species to provide alternatives to deforestation and habitat conversion by land owners. Wild Plum Flowers Wild Fruit Leaf Teas
(Persimmon, Mulberry, Wild Strawberry, Wild Blackberry Leaf)
Wild aromatic stress bags Wild Crop bath teas. Goods From The Woods regularly delivers presentations promoting wild crop certification and development of wild crops farm plans. We encourage and promote wild crop certification as an alternative land use for small farmers in the Ozarks. We work with our neighbors in creating biodiversity and sharing knowledge, harvesting eco-type seeds. |
Use it or Lose it
-Knowledge of the land, the seasons, the ways of the wild- I have learned my neighbor, a 3rd generation wild crafter knows things researchers and scientists don't know and cannot replicate in laboratories.
I know one hour with an elder in the woods is worth 100 hours of reading. I know, as a human being- it is important to keep the knowledge alive through use. The ways of the wild must remain in hands of people and practioners. These ways must not be lost to greedy, industries or be bastardized in the hands of pharmaceuticals companies reatained academics. I know the way our culture has developed its knowledge base has been flawed by industrialize thinking and the desire to obtain information for the purpose of exploitation. I know there are not 4 season, but many, many cycles and that one cannot read from a book the ways of Creation. |