As founder and director of the Sustainable Herbs Initiative, Dr. Armbrecht revealed how the quality of herbal products directly correlates with the well-being of those who harvest them. Her work challenges the conventional herb industry by advocating for more equitable, mindful practices that honor both the plants and the people who cultivate them.
“I had a lot of assumptions about how living closer to the land, like being so far disconnected from the land in the U.S. and the Western world, is the source of so many of our problems and so I wanted to understand what it looked like to have that close connection,” she said. “So I really wanted to understand, was there some kind of inherent knowledge there that we had lost?”
Through her documentary, Numen: The Nature of Plants, that she produced along with Terrence Youk, Dr. Armbrecht also explored the complex dynamics of the herbal supply chain, offering a nuanced perspective on how the industry can better support both environmental sustainability and community development in herb-producing regions.
“We made the film really to celebrate that at the center of herbal medicine, the traditional Western herbal medicine or healing traditions around the world, there’s not just an object to take,” Dr. Armbrecht said. “It’s really this encounter with all that’s alive[…], and that’s what then woke me up around the challenges of the business of herbs and led to the work that I’m doing now.”