The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition

and insect predators and parasites. Even Britain’s largest producer of

chemical insecticides and fertilizers, ICI, has said that all gardens should

have a small quantity of wild plant species growing near cultivated

ornamental plants, pointing out that these plants assist friendly insects.

Lacewings and hoverﬂies, for example, lay their eggs on some weeds, and

both destroy aphids. That’s quite a quantum leap for a ﬁrm like ICI, but

we need more leaps from them in many more positive directions.

Dr. Francis Brinker of the Eclectic Institute in Arizona tells us that

certain chemicals in the prickly ash (Zanthoxylum species) act on

houseﬂies, mosquito larvae, ticks, and several leaf-eating insects, as well as

being an ovicide for body lice and toxic to yellow mealworms. There is a

great deal of research being carried out into natural insecticides. For

instance, where eucalyptus grows, not a single mosquito is to be seen!

Agricultural chemicals may be a problem for industrialized nations, but

they have had even more serious consequences in developing economies.

A ten-million-strong peasants’ revolt in 1994 in India tried to reverse

some of the worst aspects of the GATT international trade regulations.

Rural farmers in India and other developing nations want it to be known

that their very survival is at stake. These farmers are obliged to buy

hybrid seeds from certain companies. Plants grown from these hybrid

seeds do not set seed, and therefore seed cannot be gathered from them

for sowing the following year. Thus the farmers have to buy more seeds

from Western companies, at enormous expense. In addition, these

genetically developed seeds actually depend on chemicals for growth.

These farmers’ very livelihood is being threatened, and now a legacy of

destruction can be seen, with farms, farmers, and their families being

forced into failure. This arrangement may be disgustingly brilliant for

monopolistic agribusiness, but it is a threat to the survival of small

farmers, their families, and indeed whole peoples. In fact, only a few very

rich farmers will survive. Many people will continue to starve and become

parted from their land, homes, lifestyle, and everything they have or care

for. Their own collected seeds are the excellent result of centuries of

improvement and adaptation to local conditions and are best suited for

mixed sustainable agriculture. The imported “miracle” hybrid versions are

already reported to be giving lower yields and to require excessive water,

which is simply not available.

Get Closer to Nature and Make a Herbal Proﬁle

Spending time in nature, where you can rediscover and hone gut instincts,

can be given an extra purpose by making your own herbal proﬁle. A

herbal proﬁle is an intensive study of a small number of plants that are

Home Guide to Herbs - davies