Please support the Sustainable Herbs Project - Only 9 days left!

The businesses and processes through which our medicine are sourced

should reflect the principals by which herbalists practice: sustainability and justice for human and non-human life. If you agree and haven't checked

out the Sustainable Herbs Project yet, please do. Their Kickstarter

campaign has 9 days remaining and they're over 50% of the way to

their goal. Just $10 will make a difference.

If you use herbs from anywhere other than your back yard, this concerns

you. If you believe that wild and farmed lands and the people who live and work with them should be treated and compensated with deep respect,

this concerns you. Help support Ann Armbrecht and her team in shining a

light on these important concerns. With information, we can affirm and support what's working well and change what isn't.

Ann's work is dear to our hearts here at Humboldt Herbals. We share her vision and goals, and deeply admire her efforts to give voice to the Plant People. We need the Sustainable Herbs Project. Please help make

this happen.

Click this link to watch a short video about the project, and to pledge
your support.

"With genuine concern about medicinal plants and the people who make their livelihoods from wild harvesting or farming them in rural areas around the world, Ann Armbrecht wonders how this could be done more equitably

and sustainably in the future. So do I. Please consider making a kickstart pledge as a way to help build greater awareness and positive change for the planet and for plant medicine."

- Josef Brinckmann, VP of Sustainability, Traditional Medicinals

From Project Director Ann Armbrecht:

As an herbalist, have you ever felt uneasy about where the plants used in

your remedies are from? As a consumer, have you ever wondered if you can trust the label on the bottle of supplements or tinctures on the grocery

store shelf? And have you found yourself reaching for the cheaper bottle, doubting those extra dollars really make of a difference?

I've wondered all of these things for years and that's why I launched the Sustainable Herbs Project.

WHAT IT IS:

The Sustainable Herbs Project is a new project by the producers of the

award winning documentary, Numen: the Nature of Plants, the first

feature length film on the healing power of plants. We are creating an interactive documentary following medicinal plants through the supply chain

to provide you with the information needed to feel more confident about the herbal remedies you purchase. With stories, videos, and facts, we'll bring

the supply chain to life with interviews with men and women involved

in all aspects of the industry.

Our vision is to use this site to launch a more educated and responsible consumer movement supporting high quality herbal remedies and

sustainable and ethical sourcing. We want this interactive multi-media

website to be available for free and so we have launched this Kickstarter Campaign to cover our costs up front. Proceeds will go to the design and development of the website/interactive documentary and to birthing an organization to carry on this work.

We have set an ambitious fundraising goal because we don't want

to stop halfway through to raise money or end up having to sell

the documentary at the end to cover our debts.

We are confident we can reach this goal, but we need
your help to do so!

Consider what it is worth to feel secure that the plants in your medicinal

tea and herbal remedy have been sourced responsibly and that the

remedies actually are what the labels claim them to be. And then

contribute what you can!

And then share this project with friends!

Important questions on wild-collected plants: Were they correctly identified and harvested at the right time? Were they over-harvested? Were they collected from a clean place,
away from roads and industrial run off?

The Sustainable Herbs Project (SHP) will provide the resources you need to find companies who really are doing the hard work of building sustainability into their supply chain and to encourage the industry as a whole to adopt better practices. Modeled on new, cutting edge interactive documentaries, we will create a user-friendly multi-media site that is educational, inspiring, and fun!

The SHP site will include:

FACTS: A general overview of the botanical industry, tracing and

mapping the different supply chains of key products such as essential

oils, medicinal tea, liquid extracts, super critical extracts, etc.

STORIES: Video interviews and photographs following medicinal plants from different regions of the world through their supply chains, bringing the journeys these plants make alive through the voices of individuals

we do not typically see when we reach for a herbal remedy on the shelf

or order bulk herbs online.

ACTION: An outline of challenges to quality, sustainability and equity in different supply chains; action steps consumers can take to support responsible sourcing; best practices for companies wanting to improve their sourcing and processing.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT: We are forming an advisory group to guide the development of the project and website and to help develop our long-term strategy. This will either include maintaining the Sustainable Herbs Project as a separate organization/project or partnering with an

herb school that includes an educational track on the herb industry and herbal medicine-making.

Additional questions include were workers paid a fair wage and on time? How are plants dried and stored?

A little more about the Sustainable Herbs Project Director:

Ann Armbrecht, PhD is a Harvard-trained anthropologist,

author, herbalist and mother. She will oversee the overall production, research and writing for SHP. She is the

co-producer of the award-winning documentary
Numen: the Nature of Plants, and has directed the community engagement campaign for the film.
She wrote the ethnographic memoir
Thin Places: A Pilgrimage Home,
and has studied herbal medicine with Rosemary Gladstar, Caroline
Gagnon among others.