One of the issues many farmers and collectors face is that they are small scale operators that rely on traders to take their products and sell them at national or international markets. While consumers of devil’s claw in the UK for example, may pay around £50 per kg for non-organic devil’s claw powder, exporters of Devil’s claw from Namibia may receive $3.20 (£2.55), and collectors $0.45 or £0.35 per kg. Sometimes they don’t get paid with money at all but get given alcohol instead. Additionally, individual collectors often don’t have their own scales, and thus rely on the traders to weigh their harvest for them, making them vulnerable to additional exploitation (4). Turmeric farmers in India face similar issues. These farmers are also at the hand of middlemen who can determine the prices, without having to be transparent about their reasoning for price adjustments (5). Combined with unpredictable climate, soil depletion, either due to weather changes or modern agricultural practices, potential crop failures, an ever-fluctuating market and little governmental support and protection, this often leaves farmers with substantial amounts of debt, and little hope for the future (6).

Farming is often idealised as a peaceful, healthy way of life. However, farming as an industry has the highest rates of mortality in any industry (7). The leading reason for death: Suicide. Recent studies have found that across the globe, farmers face incredibly stressful ongoing challenges and often face long hours, low value for their work and challenging government bureaucracies (7). Around one in eight suicides in the world is committed by ingesting pesticides (8). And although male farmers are much more likely to be affected by this, female suicide rates within the farming community, are on the rise (7). 

But farming is not the only aspect of the herbal supply chain that needs investigating. Once crops are harvested and collected, there are often further steps that have to be taken, before herbs can reach the global market. Herbs must be dried, cut, processed, sorted and packed. Frankincense sorters in Somaliland are reported to work under very poor conditions. Working up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week on 1$ a day, they hardly earn enough to support their families. Some workers, who were interviewed, stated that warehouses they work in, had no toilets or running water, and the women working there were developing kidney complications and urinary tract infections. Eligibly, this frankincense was eventually bought by a company in the USA, that claimed to “support the community by paying Somaliland women to clean and sort the resins all while ensuring fair labour conditions and promoting safe and healthy working environments free from exploitative practices, harassment and discrimination” (9). 

The core principle that is required to assess a supply chain in terms of environmental or social sustainability is transparency. Without the visibility of the whole supply chain, it is impossible to assess the situation and make any changes to it. 

The second core principle of a sustainable supply chain is equitable relationships between the parties involved within it. And this starts on a local scale. Commonly, one of the first steps for local farmers or collectors to break their dilemma with middlemen, is to form collectives. As collectives, they have a stronger voice on the market. Additionally, there are bigger companies, who trade directly with growers and collectors, or their collectives, and who value fair trade with them. Organic India is one such example, that trades directly with farmers and farmer’s co-ops, sourcing exclusively organic herbal material and providing the farmers they work with, with better pay for their labour, as well as secure contracts on their crops (11). Today they count nearly 2000 farmer partners, stewarding 8,500 acres of thriving regenerative organic farms and 370 thousand acres of Certified Organic Forests. Perhaps a leading example for an organisation of large scale, still being able to support small farmers, rather than exploit them for the purpose of profit.

The most recent milestone in their journey was to support small scale farmers in Janakpur village in India, to supply the world’s first Fairtrade certified ashwagandha root, a herb that has had a massive surge of popularity all over the world in recent years. The certification not only enables the farmers to get better prices for their produce but also gives them access to an additional Fairtrade Premium of 15% of the crop value, which will be used for the development of their village and community (12). There are other leading examples in the field, such as Agroproduct in Kosovo, who are FairWild certified, and champion fair wild collection, as well as cultivation and processing of medicinal herbs. What companies like the two mentioned here tend to have in common, is that they work with farmers and collectors directly, which increases transparency and offers direct market access for farmers and collectors. Equitable relationships imply fair wages and secure futures for farmers. 

Another core principle is further education and training, through which farmers and collectors can be empowered to take ownership over their land, their relationship with it and how they want to interact on the market. 

These core principles can be found within various certification schemes.  Fairtrade and Fair4Life encompass the more social elements of sustainability. FairWild encompasses both environmental and social sustainability, but its focus lies on wild harvest. Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) focuses on both ecological and social standards, for wild harvest and growing. Organic focuses more on environmental aspects of sustainability — though farmers who produce organic crops, also tend to get higher prices for them. 

Of course, sustainability is possible without these certification schemes, but as demonstrated with the case of frankincense, it seems we are unable to trust the words of big companies who give us vague promises of sustainability and social welfare. We need accountability within the herbal supply chain, without it we are risking the plants we are using, the people who hold the traditional knowledge and the environments in which these plants thrive. Certifications are by no means perfect, and they too can fail. But they are useful and can offer additional accountability, which seems to be necessary, given the state of the global industry. Another building stone, to take the matters of sustainability and fairness into the right direction, creating more awareness, transparency and justice for the growers and collectors of medicinal plants.