Seventeen Sustainable Herbs Initiative members gathered in Granada, Nicaragua for the third SHI Learning Journey. The group included individuals from leading mission driven herb companies (Gaia, Traditional Medicinals, Pure Synergy, Pacific Botanicals, Banyan Botanicals, Yogi Tea, Organic Herb Trading Company, Eurofins, ES Botanicals, Young Mountain Tea, Herbs Artisan, and a forestry professor from Virginia Tech). Many of us had been meeting monthly or more for almost the past four years to explore ways to address some of the seemingly intractable challenges in the herb industry.
This was our first time visiting a source community in the Global South, a region faced by challenging social, economic, and environmental issues. For me one of the most powerful parts of these learning journeys was not only they they offer a change to have meaningful conversations about issues I cared deeply about, it was a chance to do it with people I also cared deeply about. Read more about the learning journey here.
Nikita Agarwal produced this wonderful video of our journey. It’s the first video she has ever created!