Standing strong at the crossroads: our exclusive interview with renowned herbalist Rosemary Gladstar.

Rosemary Gladstar's experience encompasses over thirty years in the herbal community as a healer, teacher, visionary, organizer and inspiration to many. She founded the California School of Herbal Studies and United Plant Savers, as well as co-founded Sage Mountain Herbs. Rosemary is the author of the best-seller Herbal Healing for Women and the newly released Glad, star Family Herbal. She is aLso the codirector of the long-time running International Herb Symposium and the New England Women's Herbal Conference. Rosemary shared her time with us this spring ahead of her September travel to our area for the Southeast Women's Herbal Conference.

NLJ: Can you speak a bit about how you first became involved with herbal medicine?

RG: My grandmother, who was an Armenian herbalist, lived very near to us and sometimes lived with us during the time I was growing up. She had a profound influence on me, as well as the rest of my brothers and sisters. Actually, from the time I was very little, my grandmother used to take us out and show us all the plants. She didn't really focus on me so much, she was always showing all of her grandchildren, but I had a special hunger to learn. My grandmother came to the United States in the early 1900s ... (right after the Armenian genocide), and she used to tell us that it was her belief in God ... and her knowledge of the plants that saved her life. She actually meant that quite literally, and I think she felt it was her duty to share what had saved her life with her children and her grandchildren ... That was really how I learned.

NLJ: After years of experience, what current approach(es) to herbal medicine are you taking today?

It's been fun to do this journey with plants as I've aged and grown, because it seems like at every step, I've been presented with some new task. For example, when I was very young, I had a really big interest in herbs for childbearing years and herbs for children. Of course, I still do, but it's not my primary focus anymore. Then I became interested in making products ... Then I had a keen interest in herbs for women's health ... and then I became very fascinated with herbs for menopause. But, I have to say that these last probably twelve or fifteen years, my biggest interest has been in the preservation and conservation of medicinal plants and traditions; those are somewhat the same, but they are also different. I feel my interest has really been an interest within the herbal community as the community has matured, and I don't necessarily mean the age of people as individuals, I just mean as the herbal community itself has matured. [Herbalism has] reached beyond what the plants do for us and looks at what we can really do for the plants.

NLJ: I know that you hold a voice of concern and protectiveness for herbalists who really stand at a crossroads in these times. How have things changed in terms of the political issues facing herbalists today, and what we can do about it?

RG: It's a little bit like the situation with the plants. It's exciting to see the plants gaining the recognition they deserve and seeing that people who maybe thirty years ago would never have considered using them might consider it now. I think that that's a good thing, actually. But, what it does with the plant community, is bring up a whole new set of problems that we need to be mindful of and to create long-term solutions for. It's the very same thing with our herbal traditions, as well. I'm not saying "tradition," I'm saying "traditions" and "communities," because we aren't one community or one tradition; there are many, many represented within our North American continent. But, the problem is ... especially as herbalism moves into big business, that economies becomes a big issue. We engender a whole new set of problems that we need to be prepared for.

I'm very proud of American herbalism. We often talk about how we don't have a tradition here, and I beg to differ with that. I think we have a very eclectic, very organic, very spiritual connection and tradition that has evolved here from the very grassroots, meaning from the plants themselves ... and [the connection] has been planted deeply in a big part of the community ... When you look at things that become more standardized, become more legalized and become acceptable in the bureaucratic system that we have, they lose a huge part of what they are, and that's what is at stake today.

I think that we have to be very vigilant tight now, because we are at a crossroads ... We have a lot of young heeblists--I mean people who have been studying five or ten years and not thirty, or forty, or fifty, or sixty--who come in without the history, without understanding the politics of where herbalism is today and where it was. And so their viewpoint is not quite as mature. So they'll say things like they want to go through a course and have a certificate that makes it legal for them to practice, and that's very understandable ... However, in creating that kind of a model, you have to look at what is sacrificed. It's not that I'm against people graduating from schools and courses by any means, I'm very into education, but when we set criteria for what establishes a recognized and when we set criteria for what establishes products and safety mechanisms, you lose a key core of what herbalism is. Herbalism is a wild-hearted, organic system of healing. We always say 'science and art,' but, honestly, it's far more of an art ... Certificates and all of the standardization ... can never really define what makes an herbalist or an herbal product effective and good.

NLJ: How would you suggest that NLJ readers become involved with the protection of plants today?

RG: One of the great things about this particular topic is that it's not dire ... we're not talking about any plant that is actually endangered or extinct. We're talking about medicinal plants, that if we're not mindful of and create solutions for, that within the next generation or two, or maybe even in this generation, would be. But, it's a very hopeful message at a very bleak time. There's numbers of ways. The simplest method is just being very mindful of products that you purchase and not taking a company's word, but really knowing your sources ... So, that's the simple thing ... The other is gardening ... Everyone can garden and create a sanctuary on their small or large plot. It's one of my favorite projects with United Plant Savers: this idea of whatever the size of land that we live on, or that we're taking care of at this moment, and creating a botantical sanctuary ... The other is doing plant rescues. Whenever know you that there's a housing development or a roadway happening, write to the state, get the proper permits that are needed, and, if possible, go in there and dig those plants up: restore them, replant them and put back. A lot of times those plants are the old genetic stocks ... And, of course, joining United Plant Savers, which makes a small voice an even bigger voice ... Just joining together to make [preservation] and conservational] a focus. [Preservation and conservation] should be taught in every class. It needs to become part of the common information that's passed and it is becoming that. It's really beautiful to see.

Corinna Wood is director of Red Moon Herbs, which has been making herbal medicals with a focus on women's health for the past fifteen years. Corinna completed an apprenticeship with Susan Weed and earned a a B.S. in Biology before starting Red Moon Herbs. She also founded the Southwest Women's Herbal Conference, now in its third year, where Rosemary Gladstar will be a presenter this fall. This year's annual conference will be held September 28-30 at Camp Pinnade, near Asheville, NC. For more information, visit www.redmoonherbs.com or call 888-929-0777.