It may be the only native plant in Virginia that residents protect with surveillance cameras, motion detectors and shotguns. Those who have it don't boast about their harvest, referring to their crop only in hushed tones as "green gold."
The commodity? It's not marijuana or cocaine, but the tiny ginseng plant.
Wholesale prices of the wild ginseng root, used in Southeast Asia for centuries to treat everything from stomach aches to impotence, doubled this year to as much as $US500($NZ 700) a pound.
The price jump has many property owners complaining of ginseng poachers, and it has agriculture officials worried that the wild plant - already classified as an endangered species - could be wiped out by overharvesting in some areas.
"The natural population is very threatened," says Andy Hankins, a Virginia Cooperative Extension Service specialist in alternative agriculture.
"When the price hit $300 in 1993, many people hit the woods. This year, when it went to $500, they just went wild."
American ginseng , which has slightly different properties from Asian varieties, comes in two varieties: cultivated and wild.
There's no shortage of the cultivated type, but it brings only $25 to $40 a pound and is not highly sought after by Asian buyers, who think it has less therapeutic value. It's the wild variety that horticulturists are concerned about, because landowners and thieves, eager to make a quick buck while prices are high, are harvesting young plants that haven't had a chance to scatter their seeds. Ginseng plants take six years to fully mature.
In Virginia, the nation's fourth-largest producer, wild ginseng grows in north-facing areas along the Blue Ridge Mountains. State agriculture officials estimate that more than 25 percent of the plants are being yanked out of the ground before they reach seed- bearing age and that many others are taken after producing only a few seeds.
"It's something we're very concerned about," said John Tate, wwho dealss with endangered plant species for the Virginia Department of Agriculture.
Last year, 10,292 pounds of the wild root was harvested in Virginia. Federal law permits harvesting of ginseng from August 15 to December 31. But those hunting for the plant have found it increasingly difficult to locate.
"These days, you're going to have to look for a long time before you find any in the wild," said Robert Romang, president of the Ginseng Research Institute of America, based in Wausau, Wisconsin.
"The pressure is astronomical on the wild stuff." Experts believe the price increase is the result of increased demand in Asia and a growing appetite for the herb in the United States.
The ginseng root is commonly processed into tablets, teas, extract, creams and other products. Although some believe ginseng can stimulate brain cells and endocrine glands, as well as cure illnesses, most Western physicians do not endorse such claims.
Agriculture officials have no way of telling just how much ginseng is left in Virginia. But they believe more poachers are scouring the hillsides this year in search of wild ginseng , as well as so-called wild-simulated ginseng -plants that are grown from seeds scattered manually and that are just as valuable as true wild ginseng .
- SOURCE : The Evening Post1996.04.02
|
Newsdesk