00:09:36.000We look at our culture right now and what you see are lonely people seeking that connection.
00:09:40.500So I think the revolution of returning to the mother is happening.
00:09:44.840And so I think that each time we go out to nature, each time we kiss the earth, each time we open our arms to the sky, those beings just flow into us.
00:09:53.860So the more and more we can take down the walls that separate us from the natural world, form communities with people who speak a common language and keep that language continuing.
00:10:06.000out of those circles so the circle grows larger and larger it's one of the beauties of these big
00:10:10.360conferences that happen you know that it's not like you're just preaching to the choir you're
00:10:14.480preaching to the choir and it's a beautiful large song and it goes out and it gathers others in
00:10:19.940because the music is so good if you know what i'm saying i also think you know that using the
00:10:25.140the natural things in nature that were there that help us step out of our world like the plant
00:10:31.280spirits and those can be plant spirits that are very strong that are you know you ingest them and
00:10:36.480they really actually help you have conversations with the goddess and the gods and spirit beings
00:10:41.840but also just the plants themselves when we begin to converse with those like all gardeners really
00:10:47.940talk to their plants they have a language when they go out to harvest plants and talk with them
00:10:52.640and the more that we permit that language to happen the more we begin the conversation
00:10:56.820with these beings that support us. Oh, absolutely. And in my own experience,
00:11:03.960I remember always having a love for nature and feeling awe when I would visit, but it took time
00:11:12.300to build a relationship. It's not something that can be learned from a book or in a strategic way.
00:11:19.680you know after a while and it didn't take very long I really started to feel the earth speaking
00:11:27.080back you know not even in a language that I understood but it was a feeling of embodiment
00:11:33.140that's so beautiful what you just said the thing that struck me was that it really didn't take
00:11:39.520long you know it's true you have to spend time to develop any relationship you know you have this
00:11:44.360sparkle when you first meet people but to really develop a deep relationship where you
00:11:48.700begin to reveal intimacy and deep feelings and where you feel that oneness with a girlfriend
00:11:54.780or a boyfriend or whatever and so that when that happens and you have that sense that feeling
00:12:00.480in being with the plants and in being with nature then you just want to come home to that and so
00:12:05.200that's what happens that's why I see these little circles that keep growing and growing and you know
00:12:09.320in my lifetime which I'm fairly young still you know I always laugh and say I'm just like a young
00:12:15.160tree, you know, in my mid 60s now. And I've seen this revolution change really healthcare in the
00:12:21.500United States, it needs to be changed a lot more. But to see something like this happen in 40 years
00:12:27.120even is remarkable, I think, don't you? It's remarkable to, to see how hungry people are for
00:12:34.300the change, even if it's not all in focus yet. Yeah. And once we begin to walk regenerative
00:12:42.240pathways and things come into blossom we will have a momentum that carries us forward
00:12:49.440in an alliance of earth renewers and earth defenders and i'm so inspired by the leap of
00:12:56.940faith you must have taken to ignite the movements you have in a time when herbalism and environmental
00:13:03.780stewardship were largely in a coma and you you overcame the inertia with your daily devotional
00:13:11.000action and help to blaze those neural networks for all of us. Thank you for recognizing that.
00:13:18.540You know, it's, it's interesting. Sometimes when people ask me how I accomplished the small things
00:13:22.700I did, it was like, I never really thought of accomplishing anything. It was just, there was
00:13:26.360something that needed to be done. And so you jump in to do it and talking to people recently,
00:13:32.380some wonderfully brilliant young people about activism. And I think you just have to be active.
00:13:36.980You know, you have to step forth for what you believe and not think about what the end
00:13:41.040cause or the result or if it will work or not work.
00:13:43.520You never know that when you jump in to do something.
00:13:46.740But it's like forming United Plant Savers.
00:13:48.820It was really just formed over a question.
00:13:51.240The question was, is there an issue happening right now with the plants?
00:13:54.680The more we ask that question, like, are these plants really asking for our help?
00:13:59.640Do we need to be more conscious about how we're worshiping them and using them and being
00:14:04.920successful using them in our medicines and companies and stuff. And every single herbalist
00:14:10.040I asked, whether they were a practitioner, a medicine maker, a business person, they all said,
00:14:16.580yes, we think that there's an issue here and we think we need to address it. And so then we just
00:14:21.540got in and we're active, you know, we stumbled along, we did, we didn't do everything perfectly,
00:14:25.680we didn't have this huge plan. But again, working together, I think that connectedness of when
00:14:30.560people come together and you have a bigger mission in place other than how you're going to succeed
00:14:36.880and especially when you take on something like working for the plants I mean you have millions
00:14:41.980of plants that are just they're like a incredibly colorful radiant powerful army behind you pushing
00:14:49.100you onwards so in everything I think it's just when people look to how they can have an impact
00:14:55.440it can be very small, but it can be very powerful. It can have implications that we don't even
00:15:02.040imagine. Like, you know, I think about myself and just growing up on a dairy farm and really
00:15:07.980opening my first store. I was not thinking, oh, I'm going to create some herbal revolution here
00:15:12.700in Sonoma County. It was, I just want to make herbs available in my community. And it was that
00:15:17.860simple. And then, you know, you let the dream unfold. The dream kind of works through you. And
00:15:23.380You know, that old saying is you just be a hollow weed and you let the spirit work through you.
00:15:28.300I think that's a good way to work, actually.
00:15:31.260I think that helps us all a lot, don't you?
00:18:15.180It is predicted that in developing countries, a further 120 million hectares of natural habitats will be converted to farmland to meet demands for food by 2050.
00:18:25.920This will include land with high biodiversity value.
00:18:28.720On top of habitat loss due to clearing and unsustainable agricultural practices, we're seeing 12 million hectares of land lost each year due to desertification.
00:18:42.640Specifically in the U.S., the Forest Service projects that within the next 50 years, more than 50 million acres of forest land will be converted to developed uses.
00:18:53.060so although these are harrowing statistics we don't need to be debilitated by them
00:19:02.040we can use this knowledge to orient our efforts to the contrary through the united plant savers
00:19:08.720organization you've been able to confront these hard realities and take action for the earth
00:19:15.080so would you mind sharing the mission statement of united plant savers and tell us how ups is
00:19:22.360approaching the trends of habitat loss and expansion of agriculture. Thank you. Well,
00:19:29.620our mission statement is to preserve and conserve plants for future generations of plant lovers
00:19:35.980and the earth itself. I mean, even more important than for our use is that these plants are here
00:19:42.020into perpetuity. And it's also about preserving the land, which is a huge task. On the other hand,
00:19:48.780we can make such a difference. So one of the things that United Plant Savers has done
00:19:52.520is we have a sanctuary project where we have over 6,000 acres now that are members.
00:19:58.920So these individuals have put into sanctuary and UPS sanctuary means that we take at least a part
00:20:06.000of our land and convert it back to wilderness in whatever way we can. You know, that might just be
00:20:12.040letting, if you live in town, so the land doesn't have to be large acreages, it could, your sanctuary
00:20:17.740It can be a backyard. It can be a 500 acre preserve.
00:20:22.140You know, it's not about size. It's about intention, that intent that we have to see our land as sacred and to put wildness back in it through the wild plants.
00:20:31.940When you do that, when you start to plant the natives back, they invite the natives back.
00:20:36.300So you start to get you see it visibly happening.0.97
00:20:39.060And it doesn't again doesn't take years.
00:20:40.980It can happen within the first year that you plant native species back.
00:20:44.580You get native pollinators. You get the native butterflies.
00:20:47.740more frogs and the wildlife comes back to it, you know. And so the wildlife may be just
00:20:52.720floating, migrating birds, or they might be the insects or whatever. But in the last 10 years,
00:20:58.600we supported our members in having over 6,000 acres. And then UPS was gifted right when we
00:21:03.840first found it, which is 20 years ago now. We were gifted by two remarkable people,
00:21:09.520a large sum of money, and we were able to purchase a 370-acre botanical sanctuary
00:21:14.780in southeastern Ohio which is one of our most biodiverse rich areas that we have and that's
00:21:21.920not a lot of acreage when you put it in context again to those 50 million acres etc but it's the
00:21:27.840model that it creates you know it's in the middle of Appalachia and this is the coal mining area
00:21:32.480here we have this beautiful thriving sanctuary that's filled with native plants that live there
00:21:38.440just naturally you know they need a little protecting for sure from you know local poachers
00:21:43.260and deer and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it's a lot about empowering individuals to do
00:21:48.400whatever it is that we can do, small or large, that makes a difference. One of the biggest things
00:21:54.120I think that UPS did was called attention to the fact that we need to be stewards, not just users
00:22:00.520and not just consumers of plants, but stewards of our great plant community. And in stewardship,
00:22:07.980which I love that word actually stewardship, you know, it's, it's about this kind of, um,
00:22:13.180give and take relationship where, um, we're, we're all tending one another. So when we become
00:22:19.420stewards of healing plants, which we really promote with our membership is we were using
00:22:24.400them, we're growing them, you know, we're taking, you know, making our companies, making our
00:22:28.820medicines from them, but more than anything, we're also minding their habitat and their growth and
00:22:35.520they're you know ensuring that they're here again for that long-term mission for into you know for
00:22:41.400the seventh generation and beyond so it's been very successful you know it's one of those small
00:22:47.980grassroots and I love that term grassroots because here you know we are definitely a
00:22:52.040grassroots organization completely concerned with the plants and about the plants but
00:22:56.240it's a great model because with a small group of people we made a big difference in the whole
00:23:02.500herbal industry. If you look back even 20, 25 years ago, there was just no mention of plant
00:23:08.940conservation in the herbal community or the business world. And today it's a major topic.
00:23:15.100You know, it comes up always in big events and small events at herb schools. And even within
00:23:19.800the industry, it's become much more kosher to be supporting organic farming and organically
00:23:28.000cultivated plants rather than to use, especially the wild and indigenous plants that are very
00:23:33.740sensitive in the native habitats. Oh, absolutely. Every herbal event that I've been to in the past
00:23:41.420few years has addressed ethical wildcrafting and over-harvesting. Coming into herbalism,
00:23:48.160especially from the chemical pharmaceutical side, it's really easy to think it's all harmless,
00:23:53.620but we have to go deeper and see that in exchange for nurturing and healing us we have to take care
00:24:01.280of them as well and get over this resource extraction mentality that we inadvertently
00:24:08.480bring to herbalism yeah ayana that's so perfect because really that's really about what every one
00:24:14.260of these conversations comes home to is that that stewardship of one another that as we learn to
00:24:20.060take care of our garden patches, the earth under our feet, our plant communities. And these kinds
00:24:26.600of tasks are actually joyful. They can have huge sadness, you know, when you look out over places
00:24:31.720that have been devastated. But when you start that restoration process and you start that
00:24:35.380educational process, it can be so renewing to the spirit. And I think in the herbal community,
00:24:41.000we see this, especially these young people just stepping up in a grand way to embrace that
00:24:45.800message. I mean, that's what gives me more hope than anything else, you know, and it can be very
00:24:51.020hard to keep hopeful in a time when there's so much devastating news and we have access to so
00:24:56.100much devastating news. You know, it's one of the wonders and one of the horrors of, you know, the
00:25:00.940internet, that huge communication system that we are kept on track with all of this stuff. And it's
00:25:06.740very empowering, but it also can be very disempowering. But the hope for me is when I
00:25:11.820travel and I meet group after group of vital young people so willing to step up and take
00:25:18.880these responsibilities on and sometimes it's really joyful way like so plant stewardship is
00:25:23.620joyful and one of the hopeful messages at least in this country it's not true and other parts of
00:25:29.740the world is all of the plants that we're focusing on at least as herbalists you know we still have
00:25:35.440them here they're not extinct so we have an opportunity to make a difference and we can see
00:25:40.500that we are. We can see how, again, how a small group of, as Margaret Mead's famous words, I think
00:25:46.360they're the words I live by, never doubt that a small, thoughtful group of concerned citizens can
00:25:51.460change the world. And as that message grows and grows, which I'm very hopeful that it will,
00:25:57.840I think we will start to see the rehabitation of our planet again. I think restoration is a
00:26:05.060beautiful way to activate our hope and celebrate our agency. And we have to constantly revisit the
00:26:12.560question of what are we capable of today, this year, and this lifetime. And as movements grow
00:26:21.600and as historical precedents raise the bar of what's possible, a worldwide restoration of
00:26:27.300Earth's ecosystems is our call to action. And my hope is that the life force of plants and trees
00:26:34.680will break through the concrete and grow through the oil spills
00:26:38.560and where our individual actions may be small and local,
00:30:09.540I'm wondering what some of the plants are that you are protecting through United Plant Savers, how they were chosen, and what's being done to protect and nourish them.
00:30:21.100Well, a great example is our poster child, Golden Seal.
00:30:24.560Golden Seal is one of our great contributions of North America to world medicine.
00:30:29.960You know, and from the very beginning when the early settlers, I mean, the native peoples here used it as a wonderful plant for all kinds of infections and rashes.
00:30:40.580And also it was so plentiful. They used it as a dye to dye their clothing, this beautiful kind of golden green that it dyes.
00:30:48.180And then the pharmaceutical industry use it. It's very potent in alkaloids, hydrastine and canadensis, hydrastine and berberine particularly.
00:30:57.240And so the plant has been exported all over the world.
00:31:00.980And even back in the 1800s, the eclectic doctors of that time and the harvesters were noticing
00:31:06.980it was in decline, but definitely through the 1920s and 1930s, even when herbalism wasn't
00:31:12.900popular in this country, it was being dug up in massive amounts and shipped out of this
00:31:17.900country because it was being used, as I mentioned, by the pharmaceutical industry.
00:31:22.560So in my lifetime, when I first learned about golden seal, I was living in California.
00:31:26.660I had never seen it in the woods and, you know, had no idea whether it was plentiful or not
00:31:31.900plentiful. I was that disconnected from it. But when I moved to New England, I started looking
00:31:36.860for it and we were in its native range. We should have found it here where I live in Vermont.
00:31:41.700I never found it at all in any of my long hikes in the woods. And then as I read up and researched,
00:31:47.880I realized that it's actually in demise and almost all of it. I think 10% of it 20 years ago was
00:31:53.940coming from cultivated sources. So like 90% or more was coming from the wild crafted sources.
00:32:00.100So when we first formed United Plant Savers, we chose Goldenseal as kind of our iconic plant.
00:32:06.700It was hardy. It's robust. It grows throughout the whole Eastern and Southeastern range,
00:32:12.000and it was just so medicinal. And all of us who use plant medicine had been using it.
00:32:16.680And so we started this project. We got a lot of the companies behind us to try to turn it around,
00:32:22.740to make the majority of golden seal coming from cultivated sources because actually it's quite
00:32:28.200easy to cultivate. And we were hoping within 10 years that we would meet that goal. But actually
00:32:32.920within three years time, the majority of the golden seal was starting to come from cultivated
00:32:38.500sources. When I talk about the companies, I'm not talking about the large pharmaceutical companies or
00:32:43.400the herb companies that supply places like Walmart and stuff. We're talking about
00:32:47.300the herbal industry that was farmed by herbalists and you know still are really they're large
00:32:52.260companies but they're very ethical products all of those companies were completely behind
00:32:57.240the organic cultivation project and then we also started replanting projects for years and years
00:33:03.240and years we gave away thousands of golden seal roots to our members so being a member of united
00:33:09.140plant savers i've planted thousands of little golden seal rootlets in my woodlands not for
00:33:13.960re-harvesting but just to help re-establish populations that brought up some questions you
00:33:19.780know among biologists and stuff about the geones of the plants that you're planting in the areas
00:33:25.320but nonetheless we have native golden seal growing in our woodlands and all around my house I have
00:33:31.060beautiful patches of it so we have hundreds and hundreds of members who've been planting golden
00:33:36.340seal so you know golden seal is it's not prolific by any means in the wild but it's starting to come
00:33:42.680back because and there's other places in the world also who are growing golden seal now as well and
00:33:47.900you know it brings up that question when you grow a plant outside of its bioregion does it change
00:33:52.180the energetics and well I think both theoretically you know just thinking about that and also when
00:33:57.280you do the research and studies it does change it somewhat it doesn't mean that it makes it worse
00:34:02.100or anything it just changes just like how we each are reflected in the bioregion that we were born
00:34:07.260in we'd still be the same people if we were maybe raised somewhere else but we would be different
00:34:11.960But, you know, I always try to remind people that when we talk about native plants, you have to determine how far back you want to go to determine what's native or not, you know, because plants have been traveling around this globe since the very beginning.
00:34:25.000Most plants are very adept at traveling.
00:34:27.240They're not necessarily confined to one area as much as we might like to in our lifetime keep them there.
00:34:35.240And there's other ones as well. One that we're working on right now is an herb that's called false unicorn root or chamillarian luteum, which in all the herb books was always listed as being an amazing plant, one of the best plants we have for fertility.
00:34:50.220And even in my herb book for women that was written in 1993, the year before United Plant Savers was formed, I wrote all about unicorn root and how to use it in recipes and stuff.
00:35:01.920You know, within the next two or three years, as we began to identify the at-risk plants, false unicorn root is at the top.
00:35:08.900It's one of the most at-risk in its native environment.
00:35:11.960And that one, we're having challenges figuring out how to grow it and cultivate it.
00:35:15.360So we're investing in more farmers and organic growing of this plant so that we can supply the market from organic sources.
00:35:23.060So to me, that's the real key is supporting small organic farms to grow high quality medicinal plants.
00:35:29.140And ideally in this country, not that I'm against farming in other countries by any means or supporting people around the world, but our own organic farmers need support here.
00:35:39.460I look at the American farmer as another endangered species, and we need farmers who are here breeding this powerful good medicine to us so that we don't have to rely on the wild sources.
00:35:52.200Long term, probably not in my lifetime, perhaps in your lifetime, we might be able to look back at the wild and be able to use from the wild.
00:36:00.740But that may never happen unless our population really gets smaller, because with the population increases the way that we are, wilderness cannot really take care of us anymore.
00:36:10.140We have to learn to take care of ourselves in relationship to wilderness.
00:36:15.100I agree. Humanity is too out of balance to rely on the wildlands.
00:36:20.440As we speak, we are experiencing daily extinctions in the order of 200 species a day, mostly due to habitat destruction.
00:36:28.640So we need extraordinary measures to counteract it, and extraordinary sacrifices of personal
00:36:36.300desires in favor of collective desires.
00:36:40.560But that aside, a lot of restoration efforts are directed not at preserving habitat from
00:36:47.180development, but on combating invasive species, which are kind of a scapegoat that takes the
00:36:56.640I'm not saying to ignore all plant invasions, because some are really damaging and native species need protection.
00:37:04.220But it's important to put in perspective that ecosystems have always been in flux, and plants have been traveling around the globe since they evolved on Earth.
00:37:14.080Well, and you know, where I live and where you live, if you go out and you just stand and look and feel, like here in Vermont, just 10,000 years ago, everything was entirely different.
00:37:23.960because we had a glacier that was five miles high
00:37:27.180that sat on these 14,000-foot mountains
00:37:30.220and ground them down into little hills.
00:37:32.360And every species, practically, that lives here now
00:37:53.620And also, when you look at this, what we call the war on invasives, oftentimes the battle that's brought on them is terrible.
00:38:01.040There's a wonderful new book that came out, I think you'd be very interested, called The War on Invases.
00:38:05.060It's written by a young woman in Oregon, actually, who was working, doing some restoration work and was hired by the state of Oregon and was just actually shocked and had to really reframe this whole question of what she was doing because it definitely wasn't restoring habitat.
00:38:20.100But I think, again, when we travel back with plants, when we do what our ancestors were able to do really readily because they were in this relationship with plants all the time, when we travel back with the plants, we realize that, like everything else in the world, has its time, the community shift and change.
00:38:37.780I mean, obviously, there is something going on that's much bigger than us, and we can't really begin to understand it when we think with the glasses that we have on right now.
00:38:47.000It's almost like we have to take those down and say, so what are you doing here, really?
00:38:53.400Like, one of the things, and I can't really say if this is true or not, but it was Matthew Wood, who's a brilliant herbalist and one of my dear friends, we were talking about the medicinal properties of purple loosestrife.
00:39:03.200I don't know if purple loosestrife has gotten a hold on the West Coast, but on the East Coast, it was introduced as a garden plant, and it's stunningly beautiful.
00:39:10.860But like a lot of loosestrife, it's really invasive, and it took over the wetlands so that sometimes in the late summer wetlands,
00:39:17.820it should be full of cattails and the arrow roots and all of these different diverse plants will be completely covered in this gorgeous purple flower.
00:39:26.940So it has, of course, the wildflower societies and biologists up in arms about it, which is understandable.
00:39:33.200On the other hand, here we have one of the most incredible medicinal plants that you can have for respiratory function and the immune system.
00:39:40.760And it's moving in, you know, kind of, again, doing not only what it does for us, but perhaps working on some level for the earth that we haven't figured out yet.
00:39:49.500But what Matthew pointed out, he says the only place that he ever sees the purple loosestrife becomes invasive is where it's been disturbed wetlands.
00:39:59.360And I started noticing in our own area. So I live in a big wildlife corridor. We have a 500 acre plant sanctuary here that borders 26,000 acres. So we have like 14 miles that you can walk without a road, a house or a fence. It's pretty remarkable. So I can observe nature here quite well.
00:40:19.600And it's actually true what he said, at least in my area, that where purplustrife is coming in is in disturbed areas.
00:40:27.000And so a lot of times, these very tenacious, invasive plants, they move in to areas that need healing.
00:40:34.340And they're probably the most restorative.
00:40:40.320And, you know, all of these plants that we tend to think of as really weedy, they're some of our absolute best medicine for tenacious, long-term illnesses.
00:40:48.580You know, I'm not suggesting that every invasive plant, that we just let them go wild.
00:40:52.740I don't believe that at all, actually.
00:40:54.260I think we have to have some stewardship and some mindfulness.
00:45:48.440the over-harvesting in sensitive areas,1.00
00:45:51.120the indigenous people who are losing their cultural medicine to far-off places.1.00
00:45:56.120So I'd love for you to point this spotlight on our weedy superstars here in North America.0.95
00:46:02.920What are some medicinal herbs that grow vigorously around all of us?
00:46:07.780And could you explain why it's actually beneficial ecologically to harvest these robust plants?
00:46:14.440Well, you know, the origin of the word herb even is weed.
00:46:17.820It started off the old Anglo-Saxon was woad, well, wart, little King Arthur when he was a little boy, Merlin calling him little wart.
00:46:24.900It was a little word, herb, like W-O-R-T, wort, woad, weed, and herb.
00:46:30.500So really, our strongest medicines and the medicines that collect around where people grow, naturally, they come to us, are the weeds, these weedy species.
00:46:40.280And they nourish us not only as food and medicine, but also, as I mentioned, that very strong spiritual component of tenacity, of the ability to be able to hold fast when the winds blow hard.
00:46:52.680I think that's one of the things I see right now about our culture is we don't have hold fast.
00:46:57.660Those types that hold us to the rocks are very weak.
00:47:00.900And it's in part because the food that we eat and also our spiritual beliefs don't ground us deeply.
00:47:06.140So just really the mere fact of eating those rooty, weedy plants fosters tenacity,
00:47:13.200not only in a physical sense through the physicality of those constituents that we're eating,
00:47:17.920but also in the very essence of who those plant creatures are, those beings.
00:47:23.260And, you know, really, in truth, and this goes back to thousands of years of history of people's use of plants,
00:47:28.920all of our everyday illnesses, it was those weedy species that really worked well.
00:47:33.480Those native sensitive woodland plants, the ones that were a little bit more exotica,
00:47:38.680you know, they're more reserved for those things that are more rare and uncommon.
00:47:41.740And one of the things right now that we all need to consider is that when we hear about some fantastic new herb that's just been discovered to have more antioxidants than any other plant on the earth, it's almost always driven by company research.
00:47:57.300You know, I mean, it's not that it's not true.
00:47:58.960There's often good research behind it, but it's sales propaganda.
00:48:03.780Our United Plants Fair's mission is to be conscious of what you are buying.
00:48:07.800If you do nothing else other than just be conscious of the herbs that you're buying, you can make a huge difference in the marketplace and with the health of the native plant populations.
00:48:19.580And this can be not just the plants in our own country, but worldwide.
00:48:23.420So even like when I look at catalogs today, you know, these wonderful herb catalogs by incredible companies, and you're looking down those catalog lists of these herbs, this fantastic array of herbs that are available to us today.
00:48:35.420looking at a lot of them they could just be grown here so easily i mean there's a lot of them are
00:48:40.620weedy plants here or natives here and we're importing them from other countries
00:48:44.620it just doesn't make any environmental sense whatsoever and so that is another step i think
00:48:50.920the herbal community and the herb industry needs to take not that we don't want to always we no
00:48:56.960matter how far you go back in history people have you know had exotic foods at you know christmas
00:49:01.700time. And, you know, like I remember as children, if we got like oranges that were coming from even
00:49:06.600Southern California, it was like a treat in the winter, but 90% of the food that you got was
00:49:12.000local. And today really probably 90% of most people's food is not local and coming sometimes
00:49:18.380from places we have no control. And that is the same with these herbs. So we would have better
00:49:23.800control, better environmental consciousness, better sustainability. If we start to bring
00:49:29.400these herbs home again and grow them locally. So it's not again about making judgments about
00:49:34.940these products, but just the sameness of just shifting this a little bit so that we know that
00:49:41.460the plants that we're using are being cultivated locally. We know the workers are being treated
00:49:46.960well. We know they're getting decent wages. And we also know the quality of our products. We can
00:49:52.360actually judge the quality because we can see where they're being grown. And I think if we were
00:49:57.300to grow our food and medicine more locally, we would take more pride. And I think if you see
00:50:04.580the benefits of nurturing the land, it makes you want to do it even more. And it's this
00:50:09.200positive feedback loop. I'm also so drawn to the vision of tending the wild, to think of humans
00:50:17.620using our cleverness to enhance an ecosystem rather than deplete and destroy it. And I think
00:50:24.000it's essential in reimagining our societies whether you're conserving a thousand acres or a
00:50:29.880small community plot in the city you can help biodiversity return you can bring back native
00:50:35.620plants and invite natural disturbance patterns you know you can nurture the waterways in turn
00:50:41.260you'll see birds and pollinators and bugs and the whole cast of characters return to that space
00:50:48.700so well said you know that's just so beautifully said ayana yeah you know i i wanted to just add
00:50:56.180it was a thought that came as you were speaking that you know so often we hear that phrase and
00:51:00.540we probably said it ourselves you know the plants and nature would exist just fine without us
00:51:04.780and maybe that is true plants and the earth were here before humans and they from all accounts it
00:51:10.420was all going along just fine but the truth of the matter is that they need us as well and anybody
00:51:16.460who has relationships with nature and with the plants know that to be true. And so I know for
00:51:21.460myself living on this piece of land for almost 30 years, the interaction that I've had and all the
00:51:27.480people that have come here and brought prayer, brought their desire to learn, brought their
00:51:32.220passion for nature, brought their transforming spirits, all of the prayers that have been here
00:51:37.640have helped create the land that's here and reawaken the spirit so that when people come here,
00:51:43.700Even if they just get out of their car, they go, oh, it feels so magical.
00:51:47.680And I'm thinking, well, it didn't feel that magical 30 years ago.
00:52:57.200But all of nature and a huge group of wise individuals are all leading us forward.
00:53:04.820And so again, I stand in active hope that we are visibly seeing a difference.
00:53:10.760And I mentioned this to you earlier, when I look at the young people,
00:53:14.360you know, I have the great fortune to travel a lot and to meet groups after groups after groups.
00:53:19.300And I always say, I know there are horrible people on this earth.
00:53:22.120I hear about what they do, but I've never met them.
00:53:24.840I mostly meet these fabulous people who are so willing to take action.
00:53:30.200The more we get our hands in the dirt, I think the more confidence it builds in us because we realize that we are so meant to do this and it's not lost.
00:53:41.440It's just lying dormant, this knowledge to take care of the planet as it takes care of us.
00:53:48.360And if we take the time just to be and observe and rebuild that confidence again, which is something I've really learned from you and your work,
00:53:56.860just taking that leap of faith and trusting in our ability to love that which gives us life.
00:54:05.760Well, you are so inspiring. I'm just inspired by your words and your being and your vision.
00:54:11.000And, you know, the image that comes to me, Ayana, is I think about when I visit the volcanoes in
00:54:17.340Hawaii and that new earth that's being formed and it flowed down so hot and it destroyed everything
00:54:23.920in its path right but even just like two or three years later you'll see these gorgeous plants start
00:54:30.100to emerge out of this blackened earth this new formed earth and you know we can't see the end
00:54:36.280of those little plants but you know if we travel back there like maybe two thousand years from now
00:54:41.960we'd see the hawaiian islands just growing with their lushness right that what we see now is looks
00:54:48.120like so raw and unformed and new with just one little plant. So those plants have this remarkable
00:54:54.580ability to restore and they're not only restoring the earth in those ways, but they also restore
00:55:00.540our spirit. And I think that's partly why when you work with plants, you, even though you have
00:55:06.180those hard days and you look at the world and things look bleak, even though you have those
00:55:09.980times, you're always restored because the power of those plants are so restorative. I always say
00:55:15.220I've never ever seen a grumpy gardener you know you could go out to your garden you can be grumpy
00:55:20.080a hard day there's a lot of weeds you start working with those plants and a peacefulness
00:55:25.480and a surety comes over your spirit and I think that's what you're speaking of you know we're
00:55:29.440we're lucky and fortunate and I just would like to see the whole world you know be restored in
00:55:35.760that way to have that connection that deep rooted connection with the plants that are
00:55:39.300everywhere around us calling us begging us to pay attention to them really.
00:55:43.420well you've been a leading voice in helping people restore that connection
00:55:48.140and i just want to thank you so much for taking this time today
00:55:51.920and bringing us these incredible insights with such honesty and such resounding purpose
00:55:58.020thank you so much yes and just an honor and a joy