Lost Empire Herbs Supports Local and International Charities

With our customers help, we contributed over $18,000 to the Pachamama Alliance last year. This group had a personal connection for one of us, Logan, as through them he was able to reconnect to a nature that many Westerners never get a chance too.

As that is a mission we strongly endorse here at Lost Empire Herbs, we gave all the 1% we promised to contribute to them for our first year.

This year is a little different though.

Two health food stores in Santa Cruz, CA, that of Staff Of Life and New Leaf, both allowed people that brought in there own bags to make donations to around five different charity organizations of their choosing.

That being a genius idea, we hoped we could offer our customers a similar choice. As the money that we give to the charities comes from all of you, it only seemed fair that you would get input into exactly which charity you want your 1% to go to.

This means at checkout, you will be given five choices of charities we have chosen for the year to give too. The decision is up to you, though if you do not make one, we will automatically choose for you.

(As we are still testing the practicality of this idea out, some of you may not see this option show up yet in your carts yet.)

As we cannot put long descriptions in the cart, here is a short rundown of each charity that was chosen.

Pachamama Alliance

Main Locations of Activity: South America, specifically, Ecuador and Peru

Pachamama Alliance (PA) is a global community that offers people the chance to learn, connect, engage, travel and cherish life for the purpose of creating a sustainable future that works for all. They do this specifically by working with their indigenous partners in the Amazon and the High Andes, by connecting people to these groups and by educating those back home about the importance preserving our connection to life.

Newest Project: In partnership with many other organizations, the PA is developing a plan to secure Permanent Protection of the Sacred Headwaters, a critical region of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador and Peru and officially protect the lands of the indigenous people there. These headwaters are crucial for the health of the Amazon river itself.

Go here to learn more:

https://www.pachamama.org/

American Prairie Reserve

Main Locations of Activity: Montana

Established in 2001, American Prairie Reserve (APR), when complete, will span 3.5 million acres of private and public land, making it the largest wildlife reserve in America’s lower 48 states.

Their mission is to create and manage a prairie-based wildlife reserve that, when combined with public lands already devoted to wildlife, will protect a unique natural habitat, provide lasting economic benefits and improve public access to and enjoyment of the prairie landscape.

The Reserve’s vast landscape, described by National Geographic as “America’s Serengeti,” not only benefits wildlife, but the public is welcome on the Reserve, ensuring our children and those who come after will have the opportunity to experience an iconic piece of America’s natural heritage.

Newest Project: The Land of Legacy campaign kicks off the most ambitious era in their 15-year journey. Launched in 2016, the multi-year campaign is centered on several major initiatives, including:

• Accelerating land acquisition to expand the size of the Reserve;
• Building a National Visitor Center and Campground;
• Establishing a Hut-to-Hut Trail System;
• Creating a National Prize awarded annually to a distinguished American; and
• Transforming our giving programs to inspire donors from all walks of life.

Go here to learn more:

https://www.americanprairie.org/

Elkhorn Slough Foundation

Main Locations of Activity: California

This one is personal for us as it is not that far from our office in Santa Cruz.

The mission of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation is to conserve and restore Elkhorn Slough and its watershed.

The ESF sees Elkhorn Slough and its watershed protected forever—a working landscape, where people, farming, industry, and nature thrive together. As one of California’s last great coastal wetlands, Elkhorn Slough will remain a wellspring of life and a source of inspiration for generations to come.

Coastal wetlands such as these are vitally important to many life cycles of sea life and if we wish to maintain our ability to eat from the sea, then wetland protection must be considered a priority.

Go here to learn more:

https://www.elkhornslough.org/

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Main Locations of Activity: United States

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is an alliance of grassroots organizations that advocates for federal policy reform to advance the sustainability of agriculture, food systems, natural resources, and rural communities.

NSAC member groups advance common positions to support small and mid-size family farms, protect natural resources, promote healthy rural communities, and ensure access to healthy, nutritious foods by everyone.  By bringing grassroots perspectives to the table normally dominated by big business, NSAC levels the playing field and gives voice to sustainable and organic farmers.

Top priorities for 2017 include:

• Agricultural Appropriations – Fighting for critical funding and policy asks, including programs serving working lands conservation, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, on-farm research, food safety, and more.
• Farm Bill: Crop Insurance and 2018 Farm Bill Groundwork – Laying the groundwork for critical structural reforms for the 2018 Farm Bill.
• Farm Bill: Working Lands Conservation Programs – Helping ensure our nation’s largest investments in conservation practices on working agricultural lands maximize their impact.
• Farm Bill: Local and Regional Food Systems – Building a better future for family farms by catalyzing food and farm entrepreneurship.
• Farm Bill: Beginning and Socially Disadvantaged Farmer Issues 
• Farm Bill: Seeds and Breeds Research Issues

Go here to learn more:

https://sustainableagriculture.net/

Savory Institute

Main Locations of Activity: Africa, United States

Loss of grasslands leads to climate change, floods, droughts, famine, and worldwide poverty. The Savory Insititute’s mission is to promote large-scale restoration of the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management.

For centuries, we believed livestock were a major cause of desertification, but Allan Savory’s research showed that the cause lay in how those livestock were managed. His solution involved mimicking the behavior of the formerly vast herds of wild grazing animals he had witnessed as a young biologist. He devised a simple method any pastoralist can use to move massive amounts of carbon and water from the atmosphere back to the soil and begin reversing thousands of years of human-caused desertification – on the scale required, which no technology imaginable can accomplish. In the process, we can feed more people and enhance societal well-being.

Go here to learn more:

https://www.savory.global/

With Your Help…

As we work out the kinks in this system, we will make changes to the charities from time to time. Swapping in news ones we wish to push or those that many of you have recommended to us over and over again.  If you have any great ideas we definitely want to hear them.

We are looking for smaller charities that need more assistance nominally than larger ones as we are very small ourselves. We are looking to help specific locals that will have wide-ranging effects in the future. We are wanting to change people’s relationship with their planet to one of respect and caring.

In this way, we will not only continue to support the future of humanity and the planet through providing people the means to true radiant health, which will allow them to freely choose to help those and their planet on their own; but we will also directly support the landscapes that allow us to live our lives, hopefully for a great many generations to come, working with the natural world we are so intimately connected to.