The wild root - revered as a cure-all in Southeast Asia - is fetching up to $490 a pound this year, more than twice last year's wholesale price. That has some worried about the future of panax quinquefolium, the five-fingered plant Appalachians call "green gold." Frank O'Brien, a Chrysler Corp. retiree who lives at Huddy near the West Virginia border, fears he is already seeing the effects of greed. While O'Brien usually digs about 5 to 6 pounds of the root a year, he said he had to comb the hillsides this season just to scrape up 3 pounds.
"There's so many people out there digging it at that price, that scares me," said O'Brien. "The high price is great but it does have its disadvantages."
So much ginseng is cultivated that there is little danger of the species dying out. But overharvesting and poor management could endanger the supply from the wild, the variety most
prized by Asians who use it to treat everything from headaches to impotence.
Cultivated ginseng , on the other hand, brings in $25 to $40 a pound.
"Until the last two or three years, I was quite confident that there really wasn't any danger to the wild ginseng population," said W. Scott Persons, author of the book
"American Ginseng : Green Gold."
"But now that the price has gotten so outrageous, people are going into the woods who are not part of a family heritage, so to speak, of ginseng hunters," the Tuckasegee, N.C., resident said. "And they don't have the attitude of, `I'm going to be
back in seven years to the same place. ... It's, `Boy, what a way to make some money quick here.'
While there are no national figures, experts agree it is taking more and more roots to make up each pound of ginseng sold. That means people are not letting the plants mature the
suggested seven or eight years before digging, said Carol Carson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Arlington, Va. "They're just not bringing in the quality because they're diggiing too soon,," said Chris Kring, a marketing supervisor for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
Wild ginseng production in Kentucky, Ohio and the 17 other states that have federally approved programs totaled 110,075 pounds in 1993, the last year for which figures were available.
Kentucky is the nation's leading wild ginseng producer, with 26,508 pounds reported in 1993. West Virginia was next with 19,224 pounds.
There are already indications that this year's prices will mean a bumper crop.
"We've had several dealers call in for extra forms, which means they're making a lot more purchases than usual," said Marge Boyer, ginseng coordinator for the North Carolina
Department of Agriculture.
Attempts have been made to protect the wild species without regulating the diggers to death.
In Kentucky, for instance, all interstate ginseng dealers must have a permit. Maryland and other states also require diggers to obtain permits.
And there are seasons during which the roots can be dug and sold.
In Kentucky, the digging season starts Aug. 15, and the roots can be sold until the following March 31. North Carolina prohibits digging and selling between April 1 and Sept. 1.
And Kentucky and other states require diggers to insert the ripe berries or seeds from mature plants by finger into the ground where they dug the roots. That is because ginseng has a hard time reproducing itself in the wild.
"I can go out and throw thousands of seeds onto the forest floor and have almost no ginseng sprout," Persons said. "If you plant 30 seeds, that's as well as 3,000 wild seeds."
Tony Hayes, purchasing manager for one of the nation's largest ginseng dealers, said he had not seen prices so high in his 22 years in the business. But he said that probably could not be attributed to overharvesting.
"Supply and demand, simple economics," said Hayes, who works for Wilcox Drug Co. in Boone, N.C. "The demand is up, and the supply is off a bit."
Hayess is less concerned about overharvesting than he is about the destruction of the plant's habitat.
Ginseng thrives on sloping ground shaded by mixed hardwood trees, he said. More and more of that habitat is being lost each year to mining, road building, logging and other activities.
"If you go in and strip-mine a whole mountain down, where's your habitat?" he said.
In central Appalachia, ginseng hunting is a way of putting a little extra money in your pocket. But it's also a tradition handed down for generations.
O'Brien hopes the traditionalists win out over the fortune hunters.
"It has some magic about finding it," he said. "I don't know what it is."
A state-by-state breakdown of 1993 ginseng production in pounds. Figures reflect poundage certified for export by each state. Numbers were not available for some states listed.
Ginseng Production : A state-by-state breakdown of 1993 ginseng production in pounds. Figures reflect poundage certified for export by each state. Numbers were not available
for some states listed.
Ginseng production State Wild Cultivated Alabama 1,037 0 Arkansas 2,582 0 Georgia 353 286 Indiana 10,459 440 Iowa 1,874 19 Kentucky 26,508 116 Maryland 175 1,509 Missouri 2,505 9 N. Carolina 9,674 24 Ohio 7,694 113 Tennessee 13,840 5,304 Virginia 10,075 175 W. Virginia 19,224 611 Wisconsin 4,075 1,371,392.
(SOURCE: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)
- BY : Allen G. Breed - Associated Press
- SOURCE : The Plain Dealer Cleveland, OH1995.12.18
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