AI Summary
5 min read"Prayers Are Not Enough Anymore"
Rosemary Gladstar opens this 2013 talk from the Mountain Rose Herbs Free Herbalism Project with a poem about wild things and wild places, then pivots to something harder: the herbal community's unfinished work. "Prayers are powerful," she says, "but it's gonna take a whole consciousness." The talk is not a sentimental celebration of herbalism's resurgence. It is a frank assessment of what that resurgence has cost the plants themselves, and what the people who love them owe in return.
The Conservation Legacy That Had to Be Built
Gladstar dates the herbal community's environmental awakening to 1994. Before that, she says, "people did not talk about medicinal plant conservation." It was not a topic at herb stores or in classes. Companies sold lady slipper commercially even though it had been protected since 1940. Wildcrafters were taught to say prayers, collect seeds, and sprinkle sagebrush around the plants they dug. But Gladstar is blunt: "No matter how many prayers you say, no matter how much smudge you smudge, if they are long-growing perennials indigenous to the area, they are not going to come back by planting corn and saying prayers."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Opening: Healthcare Resiliency as a Legacy** - Rosemary Gladstar introduces the framing concept: herbalists have created a web of community healthcare that functions even if the main system fails.
- 2 (00:44) **Host Introduction & Context** - The host explains this is a vaulted recording from the 2013 Free Herbalism Project in Eugene, Oregon, featuring Rosemary Gladstar.
- 3 (01:15) **Personal Story: Cascade & The Power of Advocacy** - Rosemary shares a story about her late friend Cascade and how a rapid community response stopped restrictive herbal regulations.
- 4 (03:19) **Legacy 1: Medicinal Plant Conservation** - Rosemary shifts to the second major legacy: the shift from unthinking wildcrafting to active conservation and cultivation.
- 5 (06:43) **The Turning Point: 1994 & Giving Back** - Rosemary highlights 1994 as the year the herbal community matured, starting to ask "what can we do for the plants?" instead of just what plants can do for us.
- 6 (08:23) **The Good News: Cultivation Success Stories** - She provides evidence of progress, noting that plants like Goldenseal and Black Cohosh are now being cultivated organically on a large scale.
- 7 (09:43) **Practical Action for Individuals** - Rosemary offers two key actions for listeners: use "weed" plants (which are abundant and sustainable) and check product labels to avoid buying from at-risk wild populations.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
While the Herbal Radio team is away on summer break, we're opening up the vault to share part two of a special excerpt from our very first Free Herbalism Project! Originally recorded all the way back in 2013, this episode features the one-and-only "Godmother of American Herbalism," author, and educator, Rosemary Gladstar.
Join us as Rosemary continues to share wisdom from her presentation on:
- Advocacy in herbalism: being a voice for the plants
- Amplifying individual and collective voices in the herbalism community
- United Plant Savers: Species At-Risk Assessment Tool
- Animal testing in the natural products industry
- Healthcare resiliency within our communities
As always, we thank you for joining us on another botanical adventure and are so honored to have you tag along with us on this ride. Remember, we want to hear from you! Your questions, ideas, and who you want to hear from are an invaluable piece to our podcast. Email us at [email protected]or reach out on Instagram @herbal.radio to let us know what topics we should explore next within the vast world of herbalism.
🎥 Watch the video version to this episode here!
Rosemary Gladstar is a pioneer in the herbal movement and has been called the "Godmother of American Herbalism." She is the founder of the California School of Herbal Studies, the oldest running herb school in the United States. Rosemary is also the author and founder of The Science and Art of Herbalism, the founder of the International Herb Symposium and United Plant Savers, and the co-founder of Traditional Medicinals. Rosemary also created the first mail-order herb company that would later become Mountain Rose Herbs!
Resource Links:
🌿 Check out United Plant Savers