Intro music: Beautiful Medicine chant

Plants & Their Friends with Robert Eidus originally aired on WART 95.5 FM.

Visit www.wartfm.org to learn more.

Part 1 of an interview with Robert Eidus on News from the Roots with Avram Friedman.

Intro music: Beautiful Medicine chant

Plants & Their Friends with Robert Eidus originally aired on WART 95.5 FM.

Visit www.wartfm.org to learn more.

6 videos

Growing forest medicinal and decorative plants as nursery stock for market sale can often be more profitable than selling just the root. We take a look at the process of growing and transplanting seedlings for market sale with Robert Eidus, owner of Eagle Feather Organic Farm, and we review the importance of knowing your market and creating a business plan beforehand.

Provided courtesy of Forest Farming. Find them on YouTube at www.youtube.com/channel/UCA-ZP07pEpCzWuGGeI1veWQ

“Wild ginseng is far superior to the cultivated American or Chinese product,” exclaimed Robert Eidus. “That’s why the Chinese will buy whatever amount is shipped to them. It contains more ginsenosides, the therapeutic component that promotes overall health and relieves stress.”

Robert is passionate about the unassuming wild American plant. He grows, harvests and sells it but that’s not all. He’s a tireless promoter of ginseng as a high-value cash crop that can benefit impoverished areas in his adopted state of North Carolina. He gives generously of his time to see that Americans have access to products made from the wild native plant (Panax quinquefolius), which is more potent that the cultivated American or Asian variety (Panax ginseng).

He said, “Currently, most of the American ginseng sold in this country comes back to the U.S. from China and the cultivated products contain minimal amounts of the ginsenosides. Asia does not send back wild roots.”

We asked Robert what he meant by “high-value ginseng” and he said that the potency of roots grown in the wild makes it so. In 2012 one pound of wild American roots sold for around $800, compared to about $50 for a pound of cultivated American ginseng. The older the root, the more potent it is. Ginseng’s fragility adds to its value. Each wild plant needs to produce 100 seeds to replace one harvested plant.

Robert’s Roots

Just how did a 69-year old with a Brooklyn accent — an urban planner before moving to North Carolina and going into the real estate business — become a ginseng farmer and advocate?

“I discovered the real estate business wasn’t who I was. There was a big void in my life — a black hole.”

He became ill and credits lifestyle changes and ginseng with helping to restore his health. After attending a ginseng conference, he said, “It sounds whoo-whooish but I had a mental conversation with a ginseng plant, it was looking for someone to represent it.

He picked the brains of people he met at the conference. He talked to Gary Stancisk, a builder who was putting up a house for Robert on land he had bought — 28 acres of hardwood cove paradise, adjacent to the French Broad River in Madison County.

“Gary was growing ginseng on his property,” Robert recalled. “A week after the conference a friend and I took a walk up one of my hillsides and found some growing. We dug up a root, brought it back and I started to learn all there was about it. I didn’t know that it grew wild in North Carolina. Next, I got a ginseng dealer’s license — you have to have one if you want to trade in it. As far as I know I am the only dealer in North Carolina who does not export ginseng to Hong Kong.”

Today his Eagle Feather Farm is also the home of North Carolina Ginseng and Goldenseal Company, which sells seeds, roots, medicinal plants, trees, rhizomes, tinctures and capsules. United Plant Savers has designated the farm a Native Botanic Sanctuary. And Robert is constantly on the go teaching classes about growing medicinal herbs and promoting the ginseng industry in this country.

He was quick to admit that his success with ginseng didn’t happen overnight. “It has taken me 19 years to make a go of it. I started when I was 50 and am now 69. Fortunately, I had rental houses to carry me through. This idea of farming in the woods is finally gaining traction and I am getting better at it. I tell people, if I can grow ginseng, anyone can.”

Farming In The Forest

Robert thinks that forest farming, an aspect of permaculture that harvests wild herbs, plants and trees sustainably, is the best way to grow wild American ginseng. In the wild it grows in shaded woodlands throughout mountainous areas of the Eastern United States and Canada, flourishing on north-facing slopes under a deciduous hardwood canopy. The most potent roots come from plants grown in this environment, although plants can be grown under shade cloth.

Growing Tips

Before forest farming and harvesting ginseng, you need to know three things: It is illegal to harvest any but mature plants, which have three or four prongs, each with five leaflets on it and four buds on the neck of the root; you only harvest a plant when the berries are ripe (red); and always leave some mature plants in a ginseng patch.

The forest farming aspect begins when you start your own patch in the woods on the forest floor. “After harvesting a plant, sow the ripe berries, 1/2 to 1-inch below the soil, 2 centimeters deep, to be exact,” said Robert. “Then, be prepared to wait seven years for a plant to reach full maturity. By law, you can sell roots overseas when they are five years old but they still do not have the full range of medicinal components.”

Good Companions

Ginseng and goldenseal grow in the wild together and Robert duplicates nature in his forest beds. Other than giving the plants a little water when the soil starts to dry out and watching for fungal problems, they require little care. Goldenseal helps with internal mucous activities and is taken short-term. It also alleviates skin and eye disorders and is a good companion plant since it has anti-fungal properties that protect ginseng.

To learn more about forest farming wild ginseng, read Robert Eidus’ booklet, Growing Ginseng, and Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals by W. Scott Persons and Jeanine M. Davis. And visit Robert’s informative website, www.ncgoldenseal.com.

By Nathaniel Axtell, Times-News Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, December 9, 2012
www.blueridgenow.com

For generations, Appalachian residents have harvested ginseng roots as a source of extra income. Often, whole families would search the woods each fall for the distinctive three- or four-pronged plant and the lucrative roots lying beneath its yellow leaves.

Today, ginseng is so prized in the Orient for its medicinal properties that poaching and overharvesting of the plant by collectors threatens to wipe out wild Appalachian ginseng from North Carolina’s forests, experts say. Dried roots now sell here for $500-$600 per pound.

“I’m very concerned that we might not have ginseng in the wild in a few years,” said Jim Corbin, a plant protection specialist with the N.C. Department of Agriculture, which regulates the sale and export of ginseng.

Corbin was part of an expert panel of botanists and regulators discussing plant conservation Friday at the International American Ginseng Exposition, a conference held this weekend at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center.

Conference speakers agreed that more ginseng must be grown on private lands by forest farmers to take pressure off wild populations on federal lands, which have been hard-hit by drought, poaching and decades of intense collecting pressure.

“Getting more ginseng grown on private lands is the key to sustainability of ginseng long-term,” said Pat Ford, a botanist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

While the conference focused on numerous barriers facing ginseng cultivators, experts say high demand for wild ginseng in China and Hong Kong offers local landowners the opportunity to sustainably manage their forests while generating steady income.

“Every single year, they continue to make some kind of money off it,” said Robert Eidus, a medicinal plant dealer from Marshall who teaches courses on ginseng growing. “Where as when they cut the trees down, boom, that’s it. The key here is to diversify. If somebody does cattle, soybeans and a nice woodland lot (of ginseng), you’re talking about a nice $200,000 income.”

‘Sang gets rarer

Since the 18th century, Appalachian ginseng collectors have been exporting the plant’s root to the Orient, where Asian ginseng has been used as restorative tonic and energy booster for 5,000 years. But in recent decades, global demand has outstripped supply and intensified pressure on wild populations.

In 1997, about 6,500 pounds of dried wild ginseng root were harvested in North Carolina; in Henderson County, just 86 pounds were recorded that year by the N.C. Department of Agriculture.

By 2007, when prices hit close to $1,000 per dry pound, the statewide harvest almost doubled, to 12,799 pounds. Locally, harvests reached 216 pounds that year. Corbin said the lure of big money turned what once was a sustainable family affair, where seeds were sown and immature plants left to ripen, into a ruthless business.

“These folks we’re seeing today, they’re taking everything,” Corbin said, even baby plants whose roots aren’t five years old, as required by state law.

Ginseng reproduces by seed and usually doesn’t produce fruit until its third growing season. So harvesting a young plant before it’s able to produce seed stifles reproduction. A study of 335 likely sites along the Blue Ridge Parkway found just 47 ginseng populations, 35 percent of which had no mature plants left.

“Seventy-one percent of the populations — this just staggered me — had less than 15 plants remaining,” said conference panelist Nora Murdock, a botanist with the National Park Service. Many experts consider 30 ginseng plants the minimum number necessary to ensure the long-term survival of a population.

These ginseng patches weren’t found close to the road, or even near trails, Murdock said. And harvesting ginseng is illegal on national park lands.

“When we started this, I honestly thought when we got back to these really remote sites, we’re going find some big populations,” Murdock said. “And we’re flat not finding them.”

A four-year study in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of six ginseng populations found that most patches were so bereft of mature seed producers that they “are currently barely maintaining themselves and cannot tolerate any further harvest,” Murdock said.

On National Forest lands, where ginseng may be harvested in most areas between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 by permit, botanist Gary Kauffman said the number of permits has risen steadily over the last five years, while harvestable ginseng has become more rare.

“So I’m kind of wondering where people are getting all the plants,” he said.

‘Wild-simulated’ to the rescue?

Experts at the conference said “wild-simulated” ginseng — plants sown, lightly cultivated and sustainably harvested on long rotations in private woods — could help take pressure off wild populations.

Roots grown under such conditions typically are nearly indistinguishable from those of fully wild ginseng, and command high prices, but the practice has its challenges. Poaching of wild-simulated “crops” is widespread, growers at the conference said, and it requires ample patience and land.

“You really need this huge amount of forest because you’re doing 400 roots, 10 years old to make an average pound,” said Eidus. “And they have to be spread about three feet apart, so you need a lot of land to do it.”

The first harvest can’t occur until the seventh year, Eidus said, but when combined with other commercially valuable medicinal plants such as goldenseal, Echinacea, bloodroot and black cohosh, a forest farmer can make good money from his or her land without having to log or subdivide it.

Not all forests are suitable for growing ginseng, Eidus said. The best sites are shaded, north-facing cove forests dominated by tulip poplar, beech, and maple, not woods filled with rhododendron and mountain laurel.

Chinese consumers also need to be educated more about the value of cultivated ginseng, said Dr. Jeanine Davis, a horticulturist at the research center. Years ago, buyers were wary of cultivated goldenseal, another medicinal herb, but research proved it was just as potent and more consistent a product than wild-grown.

“We need to work with consumers to have them understand that wild-simulated is better for the environment, it’s better for the conservation of the plant and I would like to see the research that shows wild-simulated ginseng is a more consistent product,” she said.

Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.

Written by Robert Eidus, 2010 –
Marshall, NC

Part 1

I hear the President asking for ideas to increase employment in the earth-friendly areas, or green jobs. The President is also establishing The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (crfb.org) whose task is to lower America’s deficit while, lowering the unemployment and hopefully increasing green employment.

This is a daunting task to those in Washington, DC, as they work together. There are few policy makers who can see outside the industrial box. The ones with the economic support (inside the box) give corporate advice to our country with a big-corporate favoring influence.

It seems obvious to me that a way to reverse the Chinese deficit is to find something that the Chinese want and need daily. Vast numbers of Asian people from all walks of life want and use ginseng products daily. Many actually prefer wild and wild-simulated American ginseng over cultivated American ginseng. Wild-simulated ginseng as a commodity has the potential of increasing Chinese sales for this uniquely American product. These increased ginseng sales could easily offset our deficit.

The answer lies in America’s Appalachian forests (from Georgia to Maine), and not the corporate pine forests that exist today. American ginseng, a high-priced and desired product, grows naturally on the hardwood-based north-facing slopes, where most other medicinal plants flourish as well. The American ginseng plant was in abundance through much of Appalachian history, and used to be a major American export product. Men like Jacob Astor and Daniel Boone made their fortunes from Panax quinquefolium, ginseng’s Latin name.

Current policy makers might be unaware of this eco-friendly and effectively profitable solution. Also, the corporate lobby doesn’t seem to care about these earth-logical developments, even when there are new profits to be made. No one is pushing an American ginseng agenda. Though the AHPA, American Herbal Products Association, is pushing sustainable harvesting, they don’t seem to include farming in the woods.

There are no American lobbyists who have influenced this ginseng production agenda. One could ask who is benefiting from current policies. It would seem that the ginseng conglomerates in Hong Kong have quietly been involved. These ancient family businesses have been influencing ginseng worldwide to their corporate benefit.

These large ginseng family businesses have created a unique monopoly where ginseng is grown on our planet. The monopoly has two goals as I analyzed current past history. First, is to obtain as much wild/wild-simulated American ginseng for the Asian elite, never to come back into the American market. Then second is to sell inferior grade ginseng back into the American market without any American safety testing.

To influence getting the American ginseng to Hong Kong, there are myths created, one indicating that ginseng has no health benefits. This rumor has been with us for hundreds of years and many Americans have believed that ginseng has no value. This myth allows large numbers of roots to be exported each year. That is the front door.

The export trade of American ginseng from North Carolina has felony laws are being broken and not enforced by local law enforcement officials. The myth that poor, church-attending mountain folk are buying Thanksgiving and Christmas food for their table by stealing ginseng is still is believed. This is outlaw mentality with local law enforcement not seeing a crime being committed. These are two myths that help get our ginseng from North Carolina woods to Hong Kong with minimal profit for America.

There is another myth that most Americans can wake up from, which is that all ginsengs are alike. The way ginseng is grown has to be kept a secret. Right now, there is a politically-sensitive use of fungicides on industrial-grown monoculture ginseng. This degrades and pollutes the product and ground water. The forest wild-simulated ginseng doesn’t need fungicidal treatment. If the Marathon County, Wisconsin water system is tested, or the ginseng coming into the United States was tested for fungicidal residue, people would not be so quick to allow this monoculture practice to continue, let alone to use the imported polluted ginseng from Asia.

The Chinese conglomerates have branded ginseng to most Americans indicating that all ginseng are the same, which is not true. Forest-propagated ginseng has greater chances of being more potent and it is not laced with fungicidal residues. These Hong Kong ginseng global business elites have created a unique (and secretive) system to get the world’s ginseng and America’s entire wild ginseng crop at the cheapest price.

Wild-simulating helps re-propagate the species (in an eco-powerful way), it gives America a huge boost economically, and it provides an affordable clinically-proven superior product for the users of ginseng. This would also give Americans a true dose of the benefits of forest-grown American ginseng and access to this remarkable health-stimulating super-food. Ginseng farming in the woods does all this, while providing jobs that are green and healthy-employee-friendly.

The CITES Treaty (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, cites.org) (ratified by 150 countries), protects flora and fauna worldwide. American ginseng was put on the treaty as one of the first plants in the late 70’s, whereas Asian ginseng was put on the Schedule II of CITES in the late 90’s. It is safe to say that China voted against both of these plant listings. In the 1980’s, 30% of all ginseng exported was wild (W. Scott Persons, American Ginseng – Green Gold). By 1999, 3% exported was wild (according to US Fish and Wildlife Consultants Report, presented at the 2000 Louisville Ginseng Conference). Wild-simulated was not, in 1980, and still isn’t a category (by US Fish and Wildlife). The point being made that the treaty, which each country signed, was to maintain their wild population numbers. We are not living up to our treaty responsibilities.

No one with significant influence in our government (from USDA to Ag-extension) is helping the market to propagate high quality ginseng (and other medicinal plants) production. Currently, our government is regulating a vanishing commodity, instead of helping small farmers produce the high quality ginseng, and forest management jobs.

One of the reasons people are discouraged from trying to produce ginseng, is because of ginseng poaching, prevalent with no real law enforcement. Each year, as the wild crop is depleting, replenishing it takes 6.5 years to replenish with wild-simulated or wild ginseng. The US Fish & Wildlife Service has used regulations to protect exports, but little to resist the thieving. Many agricultural extension agents still have a hard time recommending this cash crop, because of theft.

However, there is still no pro-active propagation surge here in America.

The history of America shows the impediments to maintaining a business growing American ginseng throughout Appalachia are overcome with the awareness of its profitability. We know that organic forest propagation of American ginseng is a natural and profitable match. Our taxes would be best spent in a quest for a superior organic crop with minimal danger to the environment and have green jobs.

May this president and his staff see the importance of creating a viable way to lower the deficit and green work opportunities.

Part 2 is soon to come.