Herb Simples – Sustainable Herbs 

Simple Teas and Herbals is a (very!) small company with a mission to ensure that the herbs we sell are transparently sourced and responsibly and sustainably harvested from clean locations.  We don’t sell endangered plants and we work with small partner farms/harvest partners who follow sustainable practices and we pay harvest partners fairly.

The majority of the medicinal herbs used in the US are imported, primarily from India and eastern Europe (UN Trade Statistics Database).

While efforts are increasing on the part of herb supporters to increase transparency in sourcing to ensure fair trade practices and ethical and sustainable harvests, increased demand for these herbs is resulting in growing problems. 

In the US, overharvest of wild herbs for the domestic market has endangered many medicinal plants.  Ginseng is on the critical list and demand for white sage has grown so much that it too is endangered in the wild.  

A good resource to read more on this is unitedplantsavers.org.

Almost all of the time, there are effective, non-endangered alternative medicinal plants that can be used instead of endangered plants.