RE: American Ginseng – Cash crop, medicine and more
Great information! I live in Japan, in Nagano prefecture, which is famous for producing ginseng (not the American kind, but what they call "medicinal-purpose carrot!"). Not far from where I live there are entire valleys devoted to the plant, grown under low shade-houses: seen from the air (on Google Maps for example) they look like solar panels and that's what I used to think they were until I got to see them up close. As there are less and less people growing them (and those who are are getting older and older), the government is actively encouraging new people to take an interest and replace them, and making it easier to sell younger plants -- it is quite common to find one year old roots in supermarkets in the area -- meaning less time to market for farmers and cheaper prices for consumers.
Thanks for sharing, interesting info. I'd hope for some of that positives govt involvement here in the USA.
I don't know: I always get the impression the government is already WAY too involved in the US and that that's one of the major reasons why things are in such a state ;)
totally agree with you! one reason, as fernowl mentioned above, it can be difficult to grow ginseng is that the government regulates it so heavily (just like they're now do as marijuana starts to legalize nationwide)... their hands are in all the pockets worth anything. someone local to us also just go arrested for wildharvesting ginseng and crossing state borders.. there is strict paperwork people must go through to grow and sell it... part of me thinks it isn't worth it...
I think the government mainly regulates wild ginseng and that is mainly trying to prevent it from becoming extinct. Cultivated only has to go buy what will satisfy the buyers. They of course want to gets as much viable product for their money as possible, so the stronger (older) the plant, the more they are willing to pay.
for cultivated also, fernowl, don't you have to have a lot of paper trail proving you grew it? i could be wrong, but i remember when i looked into it it just seemed so regulated and complex... it turned me off. you're totally right that the govt regulates wild and i think that is wise; it's overharvested toward extinction as it is.
The problem with younger roots is they have lesser amounts of Ginsenosides and Gintonins. Every country is different, but in the USA it is illegal to sell wild plants less than 5 years old for export. Cultivate crops can be sold at any level, but most people want them as old as possible because they are stronger. Selling a pound or two to a local herb store might not be any problem for a single pound or two. But if you are growing to sell in bulk to companies processing them into tinctures or pill form, they won't pay much, if anything for younger roots. When they are processed into a standardize potency, it would take more younger roots to produce the same amount of standardize pills, than an older root.