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Fr. 32.50
Ann Armbrecht
The Business of Botanicals - Exploring the Healing Promise of Plant Medicines in a Global Industry
English · Hardback
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Description
"Using herbs to heal the body is an ancient practice, but in the twenty-first century, herbal medicine is also a worldwide industry-in 2019, consumers spent more than $9 billion on herbal supplements. In The Business of Botanicals, Ann Armbrecht describes her journeys to herb collection sites, farms, and factories in North America, Europe, and India to tell the stories of the people and places behind the bottles of herbal products on grocery store shelves. Armbrecht wanted to explore complicated questions about whether the intangible potency of medicinal herbs and the values of respect for the earth and care for people and plants can be preserved when production expands to the industrial scale. In her travels, she observed examples of disheartening disinterest in product quality and worker treatment, but she also discovered dedicated individuals working in herbal businesses committed to caring for people, plants, and the environment. For example, Pukka Herbs is attempting to protect rare great hornbills in India by creating a market for the fruit of bibhitaki trees, where the birds nest. And Runo, a producer company in Poland, has embraced the rigorous standards of the FairWild Foundation's certification program, which protects meadow habitats while also providing better wages for wild collectors. Companies such as these aim to inspire the entire industry to take action to make the world a better place. Though no business is perfect, maintaining relationships with producer companies, farmers, and collectors is essential to high-quality products and appropriate care for people and plants, Armbrecht proposes. Valuing relationship makes it possible for a transaction to be about more than profit. The Business of Botanicals is the first resource of its kind for readers who wish to take the extra step in curating ethically sourced products. The author also calls on readers to acknowledge that such conscious capitalism is only a beginning step along the challenging journey of addressing the social and ecological consequences of our ways of living"--
About the author
Ann Armbrecht is a writer and anthropologist (PhD, Harvard 1995) whose work explores the relationships between humans and the earth, most recently through her work with plants and plant medicine. She is the director of the Sustainable Herbs Initiative, which she founded in 2016 to help bridge the gaps between the values of herbal medicine and the reality of sourcing and producing herbs on a global scale. She is also the coproducer of the documentary Numen: The Healing Power of Plants and the author of the award-winning ethnographic memoir Thin Places: A Pilgrimage Home, based on her research in Nepal. Ann was a 2017 Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, documenting the supply chain of medicinal plants in India. She now lives with her family in central Vermont.
Summary
From tulsi to turmeric, echinacea to elderberry, medicinal herbs are big business—but do they deliver on their healing promise—to those who consume them, those who provide them, and the natural world?
“An eye-opener. . . . [Armbrecht] challenges ideas of what medicine can be, and how business practices can corrupt, and expand, our notions of plant-based healing.”—The Boston Globe
“So deeply honest, sincere, heartful, questioning, and brilliant. . . . [The Business of Botanicals] is an amazing book, that plunges in, and takes a deepening look at those places where people don’t often venture.”—Rosemary Gladstar, author of Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs
“For those who loved Braiding Sweetgrass, this book is a perfect opportunity to go deeper into understanding the complex and co-evolutionary journey of plants and people.” —Angela McElwee, former president and CEO of Gaia Herbs
Using herbal medicines to heal the body is an ancient practice, but in the twenty-first century, it is also a worldwide industry. Yet most consumers know very little about where those herbs come from and how they are processed into the many products that fill store shelves. In The Business of Botanicals, author Ann Armbrecht follows their journey from seed to shelf, revealing the inner workings of a complicated industry, and raises questions about the ethical and ecological issues of mass production of medicines derived from these healing plants, many of which are imperiled in the wild.
This is the first book to explore the interconnected web of the global herb industry and its many stakeholders, and is an invaluable resource for conscious consumers who want to better understand the social and environmental impacts of the products they buy.
“Armbrecht masterfully manages the challenges and complexity of her source material . . . [She] is a spirited storyteller . . . [and] presents all this with the skill of an anthropologist and the heart of an herbalist.”—Journal of the American Herbalists Guild
Product details
Authors | Ann Armbrecht |
Publisher | CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING HOUSE |
Languages | English |
Product format | Hardback |
Released | 28.02.2021 |
EAN | 9781603587488 |
ISBN | 978-1-60358-748-8 |
No. of pages | 288 |
Subject |
Guides
> Nature
> Garden
|
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