23 Dr. Ray James: the Moringa ‘Miracle Tree’

06/17/21 • 56 min

Ray Anthony James, Ph.D. is an Organic Chemist, Nutritional Supplement Product Developer, researcher, educator, author, and speaker, with over 28 years in the pharmaceutical industry and at the FDA. He has over 30 patents and peer-reviewed scientific publications combined. As a Lead Investigator at Pharmacopeia and Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Principal Scientist at Intrexon Corporation from 1998 until 2015, he was involved in designing drugs for cancer and inflammation. He quit all the farce in 2016 to pursue his lifelong dream of BEING on EARTH and serving the soil and humanity. Today, Ray is a partner / founder of The Moringa Group, Gleeful Monkey, TMG Omega Limited, Soil Biotica, and Kissing Tadpoles Publishing Company, and a backyard Organic Farmer. He is the author of the children’s nutrition book, Veggie Rhapsody: I want you in my Lunch!.

Our conversation covers:

His childhood in rural Jamaica with no plumbing on his home farm, frugal use of food, free roaming in nature, and not knowing he was ‘poor.’ As a teen he dreamed of a university education in the U.S. as he became fascinated with studying science and understanding why his ‘impoverished’ lifestyle with simple foods and herbs led to such good health.
How he became enmeshed in the ‘expected’ path of a pharmaceutical career and the stresses of conventional life but saw his interests shifting as he and his wife studied nutrition and herbs. His time at the FDA led to a personal crisis and serious consideration of more holistic alternatives to pharmaceuticals. He recalled the role of Moringa in health in his childhood in Jamaica, began finding research studies on Moringa and helped a friend reverse diabetes with Moringa, and his company was born.
Now in his holistic life and business, “my problems are light... my spirit has changed, my breathing has changed, my life has changed, I feel like I’m getting younger, I’m becoming this new wholesome person that is giving and accepting love.”
Moringa is native to India and is a ‘miracle tree’ that requires no pesticides and can turn deserts into forests. It prevents malnutrition and has been scientifically evaluated for its ability to improve immunity, GI health, skin, hair, stress response, blood sugar, liver and kidney diseases, diabetes, and high cholesterol. It is very high in antioxidants and nutrients for cellular regeneration.
He is setting up a regenerative Moringa farm in Jamaica on the model of multi-story forest agriculture, letting native plants flourish via intercropping of the Moringa trees for soil health and native species flourishing. The farm will provide local employment and a sustainable agriculture learning center for flourishing of people, plants, animals, insects, and soil.
Ray and I both tear up talking about how human existence is dependent on soil microbes, and how plants and soil microbes cooperate in a way that is humbling for humans. As Ray says, “the plants themselves, they know what they want, and I just have to be the steward... the plant determines what nutrients it wants and tells the microbes and attracts them to its root system...it’s a whole conversation going on below the soil.”
With all the sustainable and regenerative options now available, it’s clear that we get to choose whether we want to live in ‘chemical soup’ or in life-enhancing ways.

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Our conversation covers:

His childhood in rural Jamaica with no plumbing on his home farm, frugal use of food, free roaming in nature, and not knowing he was ‘poor.’ As a teen he dreamed of a university education in the U.S. as he became fascinated with studying science and understanding why his ‘impoverished’ lifestyle with simple foods and herbs led to such good health.
How he became enmeshed in the ‘expected’ path of a pharmaceutical career and the stresses of conventional life but saw his interests shifting as he and his wife studied nutrition and herbs. His time at the FDA led to a personal crisis and serious consideration of more holistic alternatives to pharmaceuticals. He recalled the role of Moringa in health in his childhood in Jamaica, began finding research studies on Moringa and helped a friend reverse diabetes with Moringa, and his company was born.
Now in his holistic life and business, “my problems are light... my spirit has changed, my breathing has changed, my life has changed, I feel like I’m getting younger, I’m becoming this new wholesome person that is giving and accepting love.”
Moringa is native to India and is a ‘miracle tree’ that requires no pesticides and can turn deserts into forests. It prevents malnutrition and has been scientifically evaluated for its ability to improve immunity, GI health, skin, hair, stress response, blood sugar, liver and kidney diseases, diabetes, and high cholesterol. It is very high in antioxidants and nutrients for cellular regeneration.
He is setting up a regenerative Moringa farm in Jamaica on the model of multi-story forest agriculture, letting native plants flourish via intercropping of the Moringa trees for soil health and native species flourishing. The farm will provide local employment and a sustainable agriculture learning center for flourishing of people, plants, animals, insects, and soil.
Ray and I both tear up talking about how human existence is dependent on soil microbes, and how plants and soil microbes cooperate in a way that is humbling for humans. As Ray says, “the plants themselves, they know what they want, and I just have to be the steward... the plant determines what nutrients it wants and tells the microbes and attracts them to its root system...it’s a whole conversation going on below the soil.”
With all the sustainable and regenerative options now available, it’s clear that we get to choose whether we want to live in ‘chemical soup’ or in life-enhancing ways.

Previous Episode

22 Your Compassion is Valid

Have you had the experience of expressing compassion and being told you are being unrealistic or irrational? Have you expressed care for a plant or animal and been called a ‘tree hugger’ or ‘bleeding heart’? Our culture over-values intellectual judgement and under-values the compassion of our hearts, but we can shift this together. Letting our compassion be valid is crucial for healing ourselves and our planet.

In this episode, Helen Claire Harmon discusses how:

You may need to practice re-opening your compassion if it’s often been shut down by you or others.
The global movement honoring compassion and reverence for life is strengthening.
Compassion honors life, interdependence, and the right of each being to thrive in a sovereign way without being harmed by others.
You can practice 3 Steps for discovering the validity of your compassion: Discerning what ignites your compassion; Acting with Compassionate Conviction; and Cultivating Reverent Relationship with yourself and other beings so you remain in compassion.
We can change the global conversation around what counts as ‘realistic,’ ‘intelligent’ responses to the world. Your compassion is valid.

Next Episode

24 Regenerative Agriculture Heals the Planet: Doniga Markegard

Doniga Markegard is a mother, rancher, author, and naturalist. She has a background in nature and permaculture. In her youth she was mentored by leading wildlife trackers, naturalists and Native spiritual elders. She spent years alone and with a small group of passionate youth in the Western Washington Wilderness learning the ways of the ancestors, immersing in nature, bird language, survival skills and wildlife tracking. Along with her husband and four children, Doniga owns and operates Markegard Family Grass-Fed, raising grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured pork, chicken and dairy and supplying the Bay Area with local, nutrient dense foods. She is dedicated to finding ways to regenerate lands and community through ranching practices that build soil, sequester carbon, capture and purify water, and enhance habitat. Doniga is featured at the Exploratorium Museum in San Francicso and in the film, Kiss the Ground. Find her at https://www.markegardfamily.com and https://www.donigamarkegard.com/

In this interview, Doniga and I discuss how:

She raises nutrient-dense foods by mimicking the way nature does things. “The root of all of our solutions is that connection and that relationship with nature.”
Agriculture can provide ecosystem services rather than damage, and can draw down carbon rather than releasing it. Agriculture has the potential to reverse climate change.
Grasslands are meant to be supported by ruminant animals, whether wild bison or elk, or domesticated cattle. “There is no ecologically intact ecosystem devoid of animals” and their beneficial impact on soil. “There is even more life when we bring in the cattle than when the cattle aren’t there...you have more species diversity when cattle are managed well.”
She addresses the topic of whether our diets should include animal products.
Her books, Dawn Again and Wolf Girl, outline her journey of finding herself through connecting with nature.
She felt helpless at one point, seeing so much environmental destruction and not knowing what to do. “I wanted to run into the woods because I couldn’t face what was happening, the destruction of my relatives” in the natural world. “That’s when I found that we can have an agriculture system that is aligned with nature.”
She was mentored throughout her youth by Lakota elders, including Gilbert Walking Bull, who adopted her.
She is inspired now by the number of people, organizations, and corporations realizing that regenerative agriculture is the #1 solution for healing the planet. “If you are always thinking about what could go wrong in the world, then you create that,” so it’s crucial to focus on solutions.

To learn more about regenerative agriculture, explore: https://rodaleinstitute.org/education/resources/, the book Fertile Ground by Steve Brescia, and https://www.groundswellinternational.org/