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The story of life: People, plants and planet

  • Sebastian Pole
    Sebastian Pole

    I am a registered member of the Ayurvedic Professionals Association, Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine and a Fellow of the Unified Register of Herbal Practitioners. I qualified as a herbalist with the aim of using the principles of Ayurveda (the ancient art of living wisely) and the Herbal tradition to help transform health. I have been in clinical practice since 1998.

    Having co-founded Pukka Herbs in 2001 I have become experienced in organic herb growing, practitioner grade quality and sustainable value chains. I am a Trustee of the FairWild Foundation, a Director of The Betonica School of Herbal Medicine and an Advisor to The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and The Sustainable Herbs Project. Fluent in Hindi, a qualified Yoga therapist and passionate about projects with a higher purpose, I am on a mission to bring the incredible power of plants into people’s life. And that is why I started Herbal Reality and what it is all about.

    I live in a forest garden farm in Somerset growing over 100 species of medicinal plants and trees. And a lot of weeds!

    Author of Ayurvedic Medicine, The Principles of Traditional Practice (Elsevier 2006), A Pukka Life (Quadrille 2011), Celebrating 10 Pukka years (2012) and Cleanse, Nurture, Restore with Herbal Tea (Frances Lincoln 2016).

    Listen to our Herbcast podcast with Sebastian as the host.

  • 12:27 reading time (ish)
  • Sustainability and social welfare Connecting quality, ethical trade and sustainability
The story of life: People, plants and planet

However hard we might try not to be, we are all interconnected. Each living being interacts with its environment which includes, people, plants and the elements. Here, we discuss why this is so important at achieving harmony.

We live in a time where the dominant mechanistic world-view is becoming more and more exposed as a naïve interpretation of the interdependent nature of life. That this ideology has infiltrated how we grow our food, rear our animals, raise our children, heal our society and look after our planet means we have largely forgotten quite how important the web of life is. And plants take a lead role in this mysterious play of life providing, in one way or another, most of our clothes, much of our shelter, all of our food and medicine.

Holding such a pivotal position in our success, I want to reflect on this mutually beneficial plant-human bond and how re-engaging with the web of life keeps the future looking bright.

Sebastian Pole

I am a registered member of the Ayurvedic Professionals Association, Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine and a Fellow of the Unified Register of Herbal Practitioners. I qualified as a herbalist with... Read more

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