WILLIAMS, Oregon What may be the most profitable farm,
acre-for-acre, in Southern Oregon is also the biggest business in Williams.
Herb Pharm bustles in a tidy assortment of buildings surrounded by a fragrant
assortment of potential products. It's the region's largest producer of medicinal herbs.
Ed Smith and Sara Katz started Herb Pharm in their Portland kitchen in 1979 and
moved to Williams a year later. They divorced last year, but are still business partners
and good friends, he says.
She is the business manager; he's "Herbal Ed," an expert on herbal medicine,
self-taught through reading and travel.
"I was a '60s hippie who experimented with alternative lifestyles, yoga, meditation and
vegetarian diets," he said. "I got to traveling in areas where herbal medicine was
practiced and it tweaked my interested. I've read hundreds of books and spent time
with traditional healers in Africa, South America and Asia."
The couple came to Southern Oregon because of its botanical diversity and a climate
suitable for growing a wide variety of herbs, he explains.
Smith doesn't disclose sales figures. The business has been growing by 20 to 25
percent a year and now employs up to 55 people.
"Our problem is managing growth so it's not too fast," he said. "The health food
industry is growing by leaps and bounds worldwide. I feel like I've got a set of
runaway horses here."
Yet traditional healing has fought a long battle for acceptance within the arena of
modern medicine.
The World Health Organization reports 80 percent of the global population uses
herbal medicine as its primary health care, Smith says, but the use ranges from 95
percent in China to 2 or 3 percent in the U.S.
"The U.S. went through the herbal dark ages from World War II to the hippie
movement," Smith said. "I think a lot of it was scientific arrogance.
"For many decades, they pooh-poohed herbal medicine, but now bigger and bigger
companies are getting interested. Rexall just bought one of the biggest vitamin herb
companies in the U.S."
He sees various reasons for the change.
"There's a massive amount of scientific evidence and documentation on herbal
medicine," he said. "But they also see billions of dollars being spent and they want a
piece of it."
Herb Pharm and others in the industry also contend with the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.
"The FDA has always been the nemesis of the health food industry," Smith said. A
vigorous campaign led to the approval of the Dietary Supplement Health and
Education Act that eased restrictions on herbal medicine.
"It puts more responsibility on us," Smith said. "It's not exactly what we wanted, but it's
a hell of a lot more than we had."
And the National Institutes of Health now has an Office of Complementary and
Alternative Medicine. "The wedge is in the door and it's slowly opening to more
cooperation with mainstream medicine," he says.
Herb Pharm has about 30 acres of cultivated land on the 85-acre farm in Williams, 25
miles south of Grants Pass. Smith also buys herbs from throughout the world.
The company's product line has expanded to 250 items. The top seller is echinacea,
a native American plant that enables the immune system to work more efficiently.
Another promising product is St. John's wort, which grows wild in Southern Oregon.
"Hippocrates used it 2,400 years ago for treating depression," Smith said. "In
Germany, there are seven times more prescriptions for St. John's wort than for
Prozac. It's been featured in `Newsweek' and on `20/20.' We're now selling 1,500
bottles a day."
Saw Palmetto berries are being validated as a treatment for prostate problems, Smith
said. He says research shows the herbal medicine is cheaper and more effective than
Proscar, the mainstream remedy.
Beyond his fascination with herbal medicine, Smith likes traveling and he enjoys
hearing from people who benefit from Herb Pharm products.
"I think what we're doing is pretty positive stuff," Smith said. "I recently got the
sweetest letter from an 80-year-old woman who's been using some of our arthritis
products. She said she could knit for the first time in 10 years."
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