Wild American ginseng may be a small root, but it is the center of a big industry.
The small wild root, which grows in the forest of many eastern states, has also caused quite a bit of trouble for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Panax quinquefolius, also better known as American Ginseng, is a small perennial plant that is native to Ohio and was the subject of a two-year ODNR investigation that led to 259 charges for 110 individuals. The root is highly regulated in Ohio, as lead investigator Kirk Kiefer described in an interview with WOSU.
“There’s a season, you have to have permission, you have to keep records, you can only dig mature plants, there’s a lot of rules, which is very common with our agency,” Kiefer said. “Hunting, fishing, ginseng. It’s all a highly regulated industry.”
The Industry
The ginseng industry is hardly contained to Ohio. The industry is international, with most of the ginseng harvested in Ohio being sent overseas.
“Like 90% of all of our ginseng ends up in Hong Kong, and it’s distributed from there,” Kiefer says.
Ginseng is a common ingredient in East Asian cuisine, as well as traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the ideas of “Yin,” or cooling and calming of the spirit and “Yang,” or heating and excitement of the spirit. American ginseng is thought of as Yin, opposite of Asian ginseng variations, which are considered Yang.
Ginseng is also used in other alternative medicines. Claims of the healing power of ginseng include improving cognitive function, cold prevention, lowering blood sugar, enhanced immunity and increased fertility. However, research of these claims is limited.
On average, Ohio exports just under 3,500 pounds of ginseng a year, however that number has been lower in recent years, most likely due to the pandemic. A pound of wild ginseng is about 300 roots and can fetch several hundred dollars. In 2022, the price reached $700 per pound and has been known to reach up to $9,000 per pound.
The Investigation
Ginseng is regulated in 19 U.S. states and a tribal government, federally and internationally. These regulations are to protect ginseng from over harvest and over trading, which is likely with such a large price tag attached.
Illegal harvest and trading is also a major concern, which is why the Ohio Department of Natural Resources teamed up with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a two-year long investigation from 2018 to 2020.
The investigation was named “The Root of All Evil” and had a three “pronged” approach, a reference to the three leaf prongs indicating a ginseng plant is mature enough to harvest.
The first “prong” was to find those who were willing to illegally buy ginseng, both in and out of Ohio. Kiefer said that he called out-of-state ginseng buyers that were within 30 miles of Ohio, offering Ohio ginseng. Most buyers, he said, told him to have it certified - a legally required step - or refused him outright. But some took the bait. Those looking to buy ginseng illegally would have sellers lie about where the ginseng was from, or transport it over state lines themselves.
“We’d give him an Ohio driver's license, we’d have Ohio license plates, we’d wear Ohio State shirts, so he can’t say he didn’t know,” Kiefer said about one undercover operation.
The second “prong” was similar to the first, but this time targeting those who were digging and selling illegally.
The third “prong” was a tactic found often in drug cases, to try to get those who were caught to flip on others. Kiefer said that wasn’t the only tie to drug investigations, “Then with the drug epidemic, the ginseng digging ended up turning into a commodity, to where the drug users were digging it and selling it for their drugs.”
Kiefer also spoke about undercover operations, where ginseng could be a stand-in for cash. “We were trading ginseng for- straight up for meth, fentanyl,” Kiefer said.
In total, the ODNR investigation led to 110 individuals being charged with 259 violations, including seven individuals charged with drug crimes. Most of these cases have been prosecuted, resulting in sentences of jail time, fines, restitution to the state and even bans on harvesting or buying ginseng ranging from a few years to lifetime prohibition.
One person who received a lifetime ban was Tony Coffman, who pleaded guilty to six federal charges and was on the 2014 History Channel show “Appalachian Outlaws.” The show focused on his and others' involvement with the ginseng industry. Kiefer points to the show as the reason a lot of people learned of the industry, and the reason Ohio exported just over 6,000 pounds of ginseng in 2014.
For those interested in searching out Ohio’s “Green Gold,” harvesting season lasts through Dec. 31, but inspectors are watching to make sure harvesters don’t end up on the wrong side of “The Root of All Evil.”