After the blizzard of last week, the snow is melting and us Northwesters are finally and frantically busting out of our houses. I was especially excited to see what branches had fallen, and was particularly hoping that Cottonwood would bestow some blessings onto me. So I drove out to the wildlife refuge and walked around [...]
It’s a terribly chilly day here in Olympia. I’ve spent most of the day at my desk, drinking puerh tea, brow furrowed in intense contemplation over some aspects of my developing thesis. I’m exploring the question of the contribution of ethnobotanical knowledge & practices to public health and I face a number of challenges. And [...]
I woke up just a few minutes ago, lurked over to the kitchen to greet the day with my usual blend of yerba mate, nettles, oatraw, raspberry leaf & rose petals. I then checked my email and received a flurry of freak-out emails from some of the global health foundations and nonprofits that I follow, [...]
Lately I’ve been really curious about what’s considered innovative in mainstream healthcare. I have my views and visions for what I think are good next steps for a sound health system–one based in communities and ecosystems, that takes into account ecological and animal health, based on positive health principles and prevention. But hey, that’s me, [...]
As herbalists, we are naturally using design processes all the time. Working in the plant and human world for the purpose of healing we are constantly dealing in very complex worlds. Plants are extremely complex as beings, as are human (& other animals). To deal with this complexity, we like to learn a tradition and [...]
In the digital chatter of Twitter, @HenryDeMaio said: Just FYI, everything is going to be amazing. There’s momentum building lately. And I like where this is all heading. The status quo is changing. We don’t care about commodities, standardization and corporatization anymore. We want authenticity, wildness, audacity, art and magic. We’re becoming more connected, more real [...]
Through knowing and using the plants that grow around us—the ones in our backyard, the weeds that resist all efforts to control them, the abundance and diversity of the species in the Cascadian forests—we are more whole, secure and free. Grocery stores could shut down tomorrow and I could ride my bike 10 minutes out [...]
I wrote this piece exclusively for the March 2010 issue of Second Nature Journal of RMIT’s School of Media and Communication in Melbourne. The theme of the issue is Superhuman: Revolution of the Species. I will post a link when it’s released. Enjoy! Humans. I can go on forever wondering about them. In my mind [...]
This is a review I wrote last year about their book The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy for the Center for World Indigenous Studies’ quarterly journal The Fourth World Journal. It’s a little scholarly but don’t let that deter you. Reading about global economics can be intimidating. Attempting to understanding it and possible alternative [...]
The current research paradigm in the West still glows with the logical empiricism of early 20th century thought, divided into qualitative and quantitative research. Very limited methods of measurement and analysis are accepted. Thus, Science is rather lopsided, as it’s only getting one part of the story.