Farms are important for many reasons
including preserving open space around a city, providing wildlife
habitats, as well as the crops they produce. Most people are well
aware that their food comes from a farm in the form of vegetables and
meat. But are you aware of the other, non-food crops that come from a
farm? Throughout time people have always had a rich relationship with
plants and plants that were particularly useful then became cultivated. The study of this relationship is often called Economic Botany.
Plants
produce fiber, medicines (both traditional and modern), spices,
herbs, perfumes, vegetable oils, waxes, latex, resins, poisons,
psychoactive drugs, and alcoholic beverages.
Smaller farms might be especially
important because they are more likely to have biodiversity on the
farm than large corporate farms that are interested in a single crop.
Lets look for instance at some of the
uses of plants that are grown on a farm.
Arts and crafts. Many plants can be
used for arts and crafts. Various types of grasses have been used for
making baskets, mats, and hats. People are even using pine needles
and lavender stems to make baskets. One of my favorite crafts is the lavender wand.
Medicine. Herbs are important medicines
used throughout the world. Some of the top medicinal herbs that can
be grown in Colorado are Echinacea, Mint and Chamomile.
Modern
medicine has obtained many of their drugs from plants too. Some of
these pharmaceutical crops include Yew grown for Paclitaxel,
Camptotheca grown for camptothecin, and Galanthus woronowii grown for
Galantamine (an Alzheimers drug). The active ingredients from these
plants are extracted after harvest for preparation of the therapeutic substances .
GlaxoSmithKline makes digoxin from foxglove that is grown in the
Netherlands.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/83/8325/8325digoxin.html
Perfume. Scent is one of the most
delightful things about herbs and this property also makes them
important in sensory gardens. The most common way of obtaining scent
or perfume from plants is by distillation to produce an essential
oil. However, there are other ways that scent is extracted as well.
Common plants used for perfume are lavender and rose. On our farm we distill aromatic herbs to obtain the aromatic water. We routinely distill lavender, rose, tulsi, cucumber, lemon balm, clary sage and mint.
Fiber. Fiber crops can be used for
clothing, basketry or building materials. Common crops used for
clothing are hemp, agave, cotton, and linen. Animal hairs are also
common fibers used such as wool from sheep and mohair from angora goats.
Flavor. Culinary herbs provide the bulk
of plants grown for flavor. Some of my favorites are Basil used in
pesto, garlic used in a variety of dishes and sage.
Cosmetics and Beauty. This is the area
that I am most familiar with since I grow herbs to use in Colorado
Aromatics Skin Care. Herbs provide an abundant amount of antioxidants
and anti-inflammatory agents; far more than what you could add to a
product from other sources. Perhaps one of the most important herbs
used in skin care is calendula, but the number is limitless due to
the variety of benefits they provide. Growing these herbs allows us to produce a unique, highly functional, farm to skin brand and to be members of our local farmers market.
Fatty Oils that can be used for cooking
and more including cosmetics. In Colorado sunflowers are grown for
this purpose although most are used for the production of energy.
Alcohol. The most obvious plants grown
for alcohol would be grapes for wine, barley for beer and other
grains for distilled spirits. But many other herbs are grown for
flavoring alcoholic beverages too. For instance, juniper for
flavoring gin. Other herbs used in alcohol are coriander, anise,
cardamom and licorice. At Colorado Aromatics, we grow lemon balm for
flavoring Trinity Absinthe.
The Society for Economic Botany is a
professional society who's members study the relationship between
plants and people. You can find them here.
