Guido Mase: "Our Heath" (NOFA Vermont Winter Conference Keynote 2016)

"Our Health" Guido Masé is a clinical herbalist, herbal educator, and garden steward specializing in holistic Western herbalism. He is a founder, faculty member and clinical supervisor at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, a 501(c)(3) non-profit herbal medicine clinic and school that provides comprehensive services focused on whole plants and whole foods. He also serves as chief herbalist for the Urban Moonshine Natural Products Company, where he works on research, development and quality control for an all-organic whole-plant tincture line, and is the author of The Wild Medicine Solution: Healing with Aromatic, Bitter and Tonic Plants (Healing Arts Press, 2013). Ecological health and individual health are one and the same: they build upon and feed each other. The microbes in our soil and on our food interact and shape the bacterial colonies on and in us, with fascinating effects on health and disease. The plants and fungi that grow in our soil create a storm of active chemistry that directs and modulates the behavior of insects and animals, including people. Once we become aware of these connections, it is hard to want to sterilize soil, reduce botanical biodiversity, and allow the contamination of our water. Organic cultivation techniques, including "gardens" of weeds and herbs among the crops, can maximize soil vitality, increase biodiversity, and improve phytochemical and phytonutrient density. This translates to better health for every link of the chain: from soil to human and back. Recorded February 14, 2016.