KarunaNews Story

“The trade of forest botanicals has been going on for the past 300 years in the Appalachian Mountains,” said Katie Commender, director of the agroforestry program at a local nonprofit organization called the Appalachian Harvest Herb Hub. “When we talk to ginseng dealers and root buyers, a lot of the concern we hear is that tradition is dying out and not necessarily being passed on to the next generation.” Now, that’s changing. Since 2017, Herb Hub has been building guardrails for this backdoor economy. The group acts as a procurement and marketing service that helps farmers combine their forest and farm products to reach more buyers, while training them to grow and harvest more sustainably. The growing herbal medicine market is set to explode to $580 billion by 2034, from $87 billion in 2024. To take advantage of that growth, the Herb Hub provides expensive processing equipment and helps farmers combine their products to get more marketable amounts.