SUSTAINABILITY of harvest of herbs and fungi.
Something precious is lost when we take the herb or healing fungi out of the context of traditional use, shamanism and its environment and sell the herb in commercial trade, even as a commodity. As well, too many humans want cordyceps and other precious herbs like ginseng, and so wild harvesting for commercial trade can quickly become unsustainable.
Going into the forest and fields, in wild places and emptying our mind and merging with wild nature, without having to take it back to our homes and make potions out of it is sustainable and the most powerful medicine. Besides connecting with the source of our life, wild nature, we will also learn to appreciate its importance in our lives and for the earth and we will be sustainers and not grabbers and disrupters of our natural world, of which we depend for our very existence and all happiness! Then we will also honor all other life forms and species. We are not the only species with rights on planet earth!
However, wild harvesting can be sustainable when done with the idea and spirit that the health of the earth, its natural systems and wild places is ultimately more important than our own individual needs. Then we will be sensitive to what we can take and what we should leave. Also what species can be freely harvested (like St. John’s wort) and what is precious, where cultivation should be the priority (like cordyceps).
