A radical insight into how just seven plants can bring about a shift in the economic, health and foodsystems that prop-up our unsustainable culture (where does unsustainability inevitably end?), as well as having the potential to change our perspective on how we view ourselves and the planet we live on. To retune, re-harmonise, and re-establish our connections with our true Mother. Our lifestyle is being blamed for so many of the diseases of civilization - heart disease, cancers, iatrogeny, depression, dementia, diabetes, obesity, neurological dysfunctions and many more - so surely it must be about time for a reappraisal of this ‘lifestyle’.
‘Seven Plants’ is an amalgamation of many moons’ worth of epidemiological research; scientific studies verifying folklore and traditional uses of these plants; a little bit on the history of herbalism; my own experiences with these plants; new industrial uses for these plants; some big money numbers; with a little bit of philosophy and land reform thrown into the mix as well.
The book offers solutions and is a follow-up of sorts from my first book ‘The Seven Deadly Whites: Evolution to Devolution and the Rise of the Diseases of Civilization’ (sugar, flour, dairy, fats/oils, salt, rice and lies) (Earth Books 2016), exposing the associations between the food and pharmaceutical industries and the diseases of civilization. The book provided a solid link for an association between modern food and illness.
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‘Seven Plants’ provides a totally new perspective to a sustainable and attainable future. Revolutionary even. It’s also thoroughly positive, offering viable solutions, with somewhere in the region of £trillion worth of new uses. For example, nettles making clothing, industrial fabrics, insulation, building materials, biomass energy, paper, medicines and food, with evidence suggesting their dietary neglect has opened the door to many serious diseases. Then there is dandelions, also making medicines, food and somewhat surprisingly, environmentally sustainable rubber, and that’s just the first two. The potential of these plants is huge. It’s not just these plants of course (all plants have amazing potential), but these plants represent an exclusive group known as Human Plants. Plants that have been instrumental in our own evolution, as well as being plants that simply won’t leave us alone. It is long overdue we opened our eyes to what Gaia is telling us.
Sadly, to most people they are considered nothing more than weeds. Not so long ago they were all readily and seasonally consumed, providing unrecognised preventative capabilities. It is only since their consumption ceased, as recently as the 1960s, that the diseases they prevented have reared their deadly heads. The medicinal implications of some of the discoveries in this book could very well be ground- breaking. The perspective is unique, being from that of the plant, and it is this that has allowed the revolutionary transformations, that are to hopefully take place, to appear tangible.
About Karl
I’m a Brightonian through and through. I was conceived in the Summer of Love and born whilst students demonstrated in France, US and Hungary and Jimi Hendrix played in town. There is definitely a revolutionary streak running through my veins, with a tinge of love. I studied archaeology and anthropology at UCL, took techno music to SE Asia (Thailand and Indonesia), as well as previously being a musician, producer and independent record label owner.
The research for The Seven Deadly Whites took twelve years, during which time I became a herbalist and nutritionist, and started my own food supplement business (The Culinary Caveman) – because the answer to that book has got to be consumed by the teaspoon, as we have become demineralized.
I ‘m very excited because the book has total scientific credentials and the changes outlined could be more than a pipedream - it could be a contributing factor into the change that we all know is required if we are to have any chance of surviving on this planet into the 22nd century.
I can also be found taking foraging walks and talks at festivals, if not I’ll be in the woods, on the South Downs, or with my head in the hedgerow.
I live in the Sussex countryside with my wife and 4 children and enjoy West German ceramics, a theremin, things megalithic and anthropologic, cycling fast and foraging slow.
