Johnny Appleseeds of Ginseng: Pharming, Folk Genetics, and Nature Restoration in Appalachia

ABSTRACT American ginseng ( Panax quinquefolius ) is a medicinal root that is native to eastern North America. Wild ginseng populations appear to be in decline due to destructive land‐use policies and harvest rates above the plant's capacity to reproduce. To combat this, many ginseng harvesters in the Appalachia region of the United States advocate for restoring wild ginseng populations through seed planting, but there are vehement disagreements on whether to use commercially grown seeds from outside the region, or to exclusively use locally obtained “native” seeds that can only be procured in limited quantities. I explore how local understandings of “genetics” contribute to harvesters' beliefs about which strategy will likely achieve conservation goals and which approach is harmful or counterproductive. I argued that local understandings of plant genetics build on conceptions of heritability and natural selection that draw from, but are not entirely consistent with, mainstream understandings of genetics in scientific biology. Finally, I argued that differing opinions about genetics and ginseng seed planting are not merely an expression of value‐neutral objective science. Embedded in these approaches are beliefs about who is supposed to benefit from conservation and what activities are permissible in “wild” places.