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Rosemary Gladstar Receives First-Annual ABC Mark Blumenthal Herbal Community Builder Award
(AUSTIN,
Texas, Feb. 20, 2013) The American Botanical Council (ABC) has announced that
its first Mark Blumenthal Herbal Community Builder Award will be given to
Rosemary Gladstar, the renowned herbalist, teacher, and author known to many as
the Godmother of American Herbalism. Among her many accomplishments and efforts
that have helped grow a rich herbal community in the United States, Gladstar
founded several schools of herbal education, founded and organizes annual
herbal conferences, leads international herb-focused journeys, and has authored
or co-authored about a dozen books on topics ranging from herbal medicine
recipes to medicinal plant conservation.
“I know of no other herbalist who has done more to create a sense of
relationship, community, and identity among herbalists and others with a strong
interest in herbs and herbal healing than Rosemary,” said ABC Founder and
Executive Director Mark Blumenthal. “Her energy, enthusiasm, passion,
creativity, love, and generous spirit are bountiful and contagious. There is no
one like her."
Gladstar, the daughter of Armenian immigrants, first learned plant medicine
during informal garden walks with her grandmother, Mary Abelian Egitkanoff. She
was instantly interested in the plant world, which was apparent in the middle
school projects she chose to do on medicinal herbs. In the early 1970s,
Gladstar opened her own herb shop, Rosemary’s Garden, in Sonoma County,
California. Then, in 1974, she co-founded the tea company Traditional
Medicinals with Drake Sadler and created many of the teas’ original
formulations, including the popular Smooth Move®, Throat Coat®,
and Mother’s Milk®. In 1978, she founded the California School of
Herbal Studies (CSHS), which is still in operation today as the country’s
oldest herbal school. In the following years, she founded the Breitenbush
Herbal Conference, the International Herb Symposium, and the New England
Women’s Herbal Conference — the latter two of which she still directs.
“In those early days,” said Gladstar, “when herbalism and herbalists were first
peeking up from ‘underground’ — where they had rested quite contentedly, it
seems to me, for a number of decades — there really wasn’t very much going on
herbally at all. We were rather isolated; there weren’t newsletters, gatherings,
or schools that I know of in the US that served to bring us together. [So,]
these early gatherings were revolutionary, really, and had a lot to do, I
think, with nourishing and creating an herbal community. When I look at plant
communities, they thrive together. The greater the diversity in the garden
(or meadow or woodland), the better the health of the community. And it’s
certainly true of herbalists, as well.”
In the 1980s, Gladstar created Sage Mountain Herbal Retreat Center, a 500-acre
botanical sanctuary in Vermont where she currently lives and hosts educational
events and programs. Additionally, she runs her commended herbal home-study
course, “The Science & Art of Herbology,” and has been leading the
internationally focused Plant Lovers Journeys since 1986. Gladstar’s several
books on herbs — including Herbal Healing for Women, Rosemary
Gladstar’s Family Herbal, and the 2012 Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal
Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide — regularly sell well and receive glowing
reviews from her herbal peers and loyal readers. The United Plant Savers, which
Gladstar founded in 1994, remains the project that she is most passionate about
due to its focus on preserving and conserving native North American medicinal
plants and their habitats from unsustainable wild-collection. She continues to
serve on the group’s Board of Directors as founding president.
“For Rosemary, the linking of herbs to humans is only a mechanism for people to
bring awareness to Mother Earth from whom we all originate,” said ABC Board of
Trustees President Steven Foster. “Rosemary laid the foundation for the rise of
traditional herbalism, which has blossomed into touching the hearts of and
teaching tens of thousands of people. Small gatherings of a couple dozen folks
of like mind grew into international conferences, symposia, classes, and
retreats that were key to the rise of two generations of practicing herbalists
in the modern herbal renaissance.”
“Rosemary Gladstar introduced herbalists to each other, and to the world,”
said fellow herbalist Cascade Anderson Geller. “She gave herbalism a face,
approachable and lovable. She gave a big leg up to herbalists of
current renown, helping them to achieve success and grow their reputations.
[She also] is a brilliant business woman. All of her businesses, even when she
has moved on, continue to flourish in some form. To achieve such success, and
to be so well loved by colleagues and students alike, is remarkable. Her
trustworthiness shines because it is legitimate emanating from an open heart
and mind with roots entwined deep in Mother Earth. By walking her talk,
Rosemary’s achieved incredible energy that she has generously shared.”
Ever humble and modest, Gladstar gives much credit to her herbal peers. “We
help each other grow,” she said, “either by pushing, pulling, encouraging,
tugging, or just pure nourishing love. At this point in time, the herbal
community is really comprised of many communities, all interlinking through our
love of plants. But as extraordinary as the plants that bring us together and
unite us as an herbal community, are the people who love plants. They are
an amazing group of diverse, bright, eccentric, talented, and amazing
individuals. I count my lucky stars to be amongst them…. Again, I am humbled
and honored by this award.”
Although she is unable to be present in person due to a prior commitment,
Gladstar will accept the Mark Blumenthal Herbal Community Builder Award via
pre-recorded video at the 8th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration
and Awards Ceremony in March in Anaheim, California. The ABC event occurs
during the annual Nutracon conference and Natural Products Expo West.
The ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony is underwritten by generous
contributions from the following members of the herb, dietary supplement, and
natural products industry (i.e., raw material suppliers, supplement and
tea manufacturers, analytical laboratories, a law firm, an insurer, a media
company, and a trade organization):
Alkemists Laboratories
Amin Talati, LLC
ChromaDex
EuroPharma
Grifcon Enterprises
Horphag Research
Indena USA, Inc.
Martin Bauer Group
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MegaFood
Natural Factors Nutritional Products
New Chapter, Inc.
New Hope Natural Media
PlusPharma, Inc.
RFI Ingredients, LLC
Traditional Medicinals, Inc.
United Natural Products Alliance
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