knob wrote:I don't think any of us is in favor of more Gov. Oversight.
Ahhh a voice of reason from someone who's well aware of to much government oversight already on EVERYTHING.
Now I do appreciate the fact that we have some regulation on Ginseng but I wish the everyone understood why there's a season and then because they understood they did the right thing so that we required no regulation. ( Yeah right only in dreamland )
But also why is wild ginseng considered a threatened plant? Its cultivated all over in fields with shade provided, woods cultivated, woods simulated wild & wild.
You take into account all those types they break it down into and you realize the plant ginseng is not threatened. So they then say its the wild that's threatened.
Well I'm sorry I hate to burst everyone's bubble but in my opinion there is VERY little true wild ginseng left if any. Because every time 1 of us takes seed in the woods purchased from dealers, growers etc... we are introducing a cultivated plants seed into the wild ginseng genome that then has wild simulated breeding through pollination with the wild that's there. This seed planting is being done in every state and county by diggers for YEARS ( I planted seed digging with my grandfather he purchased when I was a kid ). So by now virtually every ginseng plant most likely has had contact with plants that originated from cultivated seeds resulting in a dilution of the original genetics. So the \"\"WILD\"\" is actually a cross of cultivated and wild in most all cases. So hardly any of its a original wild genetic strain.
So why can't the 2 styles of cultivated be included in ginsengs total count which would then not make it a threatened plant? If its because its not considered wild then as I said before due to cross pollination all wild should basically be considered wild simulated at best.
I mean come on if we listed every thing that's no longer growing in the wild in large quantities as threatened then shouldn't corn, wheat etc.... all be listed as threatened since I never come across wild corn, soy beans, wheat etc... that isn't present because of previous commercial or private plantings of those crops.
Also in my opinion ginseng should be at most 3 classes
cultivated
cultivated organic
non-cultivated
I think this because if you go out in the woods with me and look at what's out there you can't tell me which plants in my woods are from cultivated seed I've planted and which plants came from a seed that came off a wild plant that I've planted or which seeds escaped my capture and planting itself. You can't do it just like the guy who clears his woods and plants and maintains a wild simulated patch. You going to tell me after 5-10 years that NO wild seeds never hit that property?? I don't think so as the possibility exists so honestly wild simulated & wild are the same things if no other assistance is given other than the planting of the seed. Because you can't consider seed planting to make ginseng wild simulated because due to the law every wild seed found is supposed to be planted back into the same area it came from so all those wild plants were finding a large majority are there because we as diggers plant the wild seed back which would make it wild simulated since we are planting the seed.
There's already so much oversight by the government in ginseng that I feel that it gives the Koreans, Chinese, etc.... greater leverage & control of the pricing. Cause come on if you the digger could legally keep ginseng over from 1 year to the next without requiring certification it would give diggers greater ability to control the market SOME, and what difference does it make in determining the current levels of ginseng in the wild by checking to see harvest weight #'s for each year. If you simply required that at selling time it be certified they get the same total count but it must be averaged out over several years. Cause come on drought years, overly wet years, late frosts, etc... all affect a years total harvest #'s.
Then the Fed's require our buyers that are exporters to purchase a separate export license for each individual years ginseng that the ginseng was harvested from. WHY, is it just to make things more difficult for the USA buyer so they feel they need to move all of this years ginseng this year?? Its not because they don't know how much was harvested.
Also why should the ginseng when exported be required to have the certificates go with it from when it was purchased. Why does the Chinese, Koreans, etc.... have to know which year it was dug?? Its not like they are moving it all to market each year. Look at the big old roots that sit in a shop in China for some ridiculous price so it takes 10-15 years to sell because its priced so high. you think the Chinese have a date of harvest on the roots packaging, I don't think so. So if they can hold it 5-10-15 years with value increasing rather than decreasing then why is our government saddling our buyers with these regulations.
I fully understand we as a society need some regulation and appreciate the fact that there should be a legal digging season for ginseng dug to be sold, but they really need to clean up the mess of regulations in my opinion and concentrate more on penalties and enforcement of those already existing.
Hope everyone understands what I was getting at this post got far longer than I originally intended and as a 2 finger typist my mind minds thoughts quite often can out run the speed my fingers can put it into type so things don't read quite as I meant them to sometimes.
