Chemical herbicides can poison plants even after they have been digested by grazing animals and have been composted as manure! So medicines that have been contaminated in similar ways must be treated with the most extreme caution. For this reason I always choose organic produce wherever possible.

The growing process of herbs can have significant outcomes on their medicinal effectiveness. This is because when herbs are grown in the semi-sterile cultivations favoured by non-organic methods, they have no effective competition and so no need to develop the all-important ‘secondary metabolites’ which are responsible for their healing properties. Studies show that organically grown crops tend to be higher in the health-giving plant compounds such as polyphenols and flavonoids.

A lot of the herbs I source are (as well as being organic) biodynamically produced. Biodynamics is a form of agriculture developed by Rudolf Steiner that further ensures that the farming is ecologically conscious and encouraging biodiversity.