America’s Ginsengland stresses out

I can honestly say that, in my many, many years of life, I have given zero conscious thought to ginseng. If we were playing word-association, it would be 1) tea; 2) China; 3) health food stores. If over the course of those many, many years of life, I’ve ingested ginseng I’m guessing it was in Chinese food. Or maybe I’m getting it confused with ginger. (Perhaps I should be taking ginseng for confusion and memory lapses.)

But it I’d grown up in Marathon County, Wisconsin – which, blessedly, I did not – I’d know plenty about ginseng.

Wisconsin, you ask? As in America’s Dairyland?

Yes, that Wisconsin, where it’s not all contented cows, Sargento cheese, and Green Bay Packers fans (a.k.a., Cheeseheads) sporting wedge o’ cheese hats. At least not in Marathon County.

This rural area built an important local industry as a purveyor of a premium product for China’s rising middle class, where its ginseng is sold in boxes bearing the American flag and the line, “Something Special from Wisconsin.”

…Ginseng exports are a $30 million industry in Marathon County, and local economists estimate that each new job in ginseng creates as many as four additional jobs. (Source: Washington Post)

Oh, ginseng isn’t all that Marathon County has going for it. The county’s largest city is Wausau, known for insurance (its eponymous insurance company is now part of Liberty Mutual) and for manufacturing. And there is nearly one dairy cow for each of the county’s 135k two-legged residents. But ginseng is an important product – especially for the 180 local farmers who grow it in America’s Ginsengland:

This rural area built an important local industry as a purveyor of a premium product for China’s rising middle class, where its ginseng is sold in boxes bearing the American flag and the line, “Something Special from Wisconsin.”

…Historically, middle- and upper-class Chinese consumers have given the pricey root as gifts, or used it to brew teas and broths believed to confer health benefits. As the Chinese middle class has grown, however, so has the demand for Wisconsin ginseng — from bitter candies to K-cups.

Bitter candies and ginseng K-cups? Include me out, please. (Side note: this reminds me of the absolutely worst piece of candy I ever ate. It was on a childhood trip to Sturbridge Village – an old timey fake early 1800’s era town – and we were either given a sample or my father bought a bag. Anyway, I remember spitting the terrible candy out immediately, and feeling nauseated for hours after. What a bitter, nasty candy that was. But what do you expect from horehound, which is used, among other things, as a vermifuge. And, yes, I had to look it up to find out it means something that expels intestinal parasites. If that was the big treat available in the 19th century, I’d rather have grow up in Marathon County in the 1950’s than Sturbridge Village in the 1850’s. And that’s even if we spotted Sturbridge Village some indoor plumbing.)

Anyway, Wisconsin ginseng is pricier than more plentiful variants grown in Korea and China, but even with that, making a living off of ginseng is a tough go. And the going’s likely going to get tougher when the 15 percent tariff that China recently leveled on ginseng (among other agricultural products) clicks in. Locals are anticipating – and fearing - a decline in sales.

Growers fear the tariff is likely to reduce demand in China, leading dried roots to pile up stateside and cutting wholesale prices.

…China placed tariffs on U.S. chicken parts in 2009 as part of a trade dispute with the Obama administration. That market never recovered: China turned to Brazil instead.

Wisconsin ginseng growers aren’t afraid of Brazil. It’s Canada that exports a lot of ginseng and could pick up the Wisconsin piece of the action if the tariff prices Marathon County out.

It’s almost gratuitous to say that Marathon County voted overwhelmingly for Trump, perhaps buying into the ‘trade wars are good and easy to win’ philosophy. Sigh.

Be careful what you wish for sounds like something straight out of a fortune cookie, doesn’t it?

Globalization absolutely has winners and losers. And even if it pretty much always aggregates into an overall win, that’s cold comfort to those who lose out on the micro level. Time for a stress-reducing cup of ginseng tea.