Reclamation with Each Harvest: Plant Wisdom, Medical Racism, and the Criminalization of Foraging
đź“– Introduction
“This misinformation isn’t just a misunderstanding—it’s part of a larger pattern of medical racism that downplays the knowledge of non-European cultures while simultaneously profiting from their discoveries once they are repackaged for commercial use.”
For generations, communities of color have turned to the land for healing. The leaves, roots, and resins our ancestors used weren’t alternative—they were primary. They were sacred. But today, traditional plant medicine is often dismissed as pseudoscience... until it’s profitable.
đź’Š The Herbal Theft Economy
Western medicine continues to profit from remedies it once ridiculed.
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Neem, turmeric, creosote, and elderberry—traditional plant allies—are now patented, processed, and packaged with glossy labels.
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Pharmaceutical companies extract compounds from these plants and call them “innovations,” while denying credit or compensation to the cultures that held this wisdom first.
This is medical racism in real time: discrediting Indigenous and ancestral knowledge unless it's filtered through a lab and labeled as "science."
⚖️ Anti-Foraging Laws: Healing as a Crime
In many states, it's illegal to harvest even the most common plants—like dandelion, nettle, or creosote—from public land. These laws are often framed as "conservation," but the deeper history reveals:
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Anti-foraging laws were rooted in colonial control over land and resources.
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These laws disproportionately affect BIPOC communities who forage out of tradition, not trend.
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White-led foraging is romanticized. Brown and Black-led foraging is criminalized.
This is not just ecological policy—it’s a form of gatekeeping wellness and land access.
🌿 Reclaiming Herbal Medicine as Resistance
To gather creosote is to remember who we are.
To work with plants is to reconnect with lineage, land, and liberation.
Every harvest is a small revolution.
It’s a refusal to let colonization, capitalism, and systemic erasure dictate who gets to be well and who doesn’t.
At Desert Potions, every blend we make is grounded in this knowing.
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We do not source from trends—we source from trust.
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We do not work with plants as products—we work with them as elders, healers, and kin.
đź’¬ "Reclaiming herbal medicine isn't just about wellness. It's about sovereignty. It's about remembering."
🙌 A Call to Reconnect
May you walk gently with the land.
May you learn the names your ancestors spoke.
May you listen to the wind, the resin, the roots.
Reclaim. Rewild. Remember.
Your healing is not a trend—it’s your birthright.