“We ain't never stolen a plant”: Livelihoods, property, and illegal ginseng harvesting in the Appalachian forest commons

Abstract

In the southern Appalachian Mountains, wild American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) has been harvested for commercial sale for nearly 250 years. Ginseng is vulnerable to overexploitation but can be harvested according to regulations implemented to prevent a tragedy of the commons. Despite regulations, much ginseng is harvested illegally. Conservationists, supported by American property law, tend to believe illegal ginseng harvesters are thieves interested in quickly obtaining cash. This article argues instead that many illegal ginseng harvesters believe one cannot “steal” a wild plant. Many Appalachian forest users believe the owner of a ginseng root is the person who harvests it and not the landowner. Efforts to protect ginseng often rely on excluding harvesters from accessing lands historically considered to belong to the commons, which can also exclude them from an important strategy for earning income in a region where formal living‐wage jobs are scarce. This article adds complexity to understandings of the rural poor who make a living at the edges of the global capitalist system and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of poor rural Appalachians by exploring the reasons for ginseng harvesting, a behavior that otherwise might appear consistent with negative stereotypes of Appalachian culture.

Landscapes of value

“…Further illuminating the sprawling, contradictory values that can blossom as exclusion encounters twenty-first-century contexts, Farley (2022) draws on intensive participant observation with ginseng diggers in Appalachia. Recognized for its medicinal properties and ecological fragility alike, ginseng challenges its seekers to "billygoat" across steeply graded hillsides with little regard for the property lines on either privately or publicly held land.…”

“…While the actions of individual harvesters may indeed damage ginseng ecologies, Appalachia's mining, tourism, and logging industries almost certainly cause more damage. Efforts to exclude certain people undertaking certain activities from the commons while abiding others' unfettered access vividly illustrate how the struggles we have about resource access are at root not about property rights—which are often “shared, split, and negotiated,” rather than hard and fast—but rather about which activities and which goals we value (Farley 2022, 318). By refusing their prescribed exclusion, ginseng diggers adapt long‐standing livelihood strategies (Halperin 1990; Sherman 2009) of the “rural poor who make a living at the edges of the global capitalist system” (Farley 2022, 311).…”