Oud and Ethics

[masstika]

Beside the well documented abuses to the environment and natives, brought on by greed and the desire to acquire Oud (Agarwood), I was thinking about the recent Agarwood cultivation efforts in those regions. While at first glance those efforts seem to have the right intentions of lifting the pressure from the remaining Argarwood at wild, I was thinking in particular about the ethics of the practice of inoculating healthy trees (in effect making them sick ) in order to start forming the Agarwood. is this practice akin to force feeding ducks to make Foei gras or inserting foreign objects to make cultured Pearls?
We cut trees to build and for sustenance and infections happens in natural but is there an ethical question mark when human try (for commercial benefit) to imitate a process that happens (apparently haphazardly) in nature and that result in the death of living trees for the sake of something...I don't want to say trivial but let's say not for sustenance? Looking for feed back from different view points and backgrounds.

 

[floraopia]

I agree, but the question boils down to, "do you want to keep using Oud?"

 

[Oudiferous]

Masstika, you make an interesting point here, something I have thought about myself many times. I've never been able to feel morally sound about "farming" practices where an animal (or other living being) is raised and thus exploited for one reason or another (especially when it results in the death of the animal). I also don't support the slaughter of animals, so I am vegetarian.

When it comes to Oud, it is complicated. This is where cultivated Oud begins to introduce complications that I feel Wild Oud does not necessarily have to the same degree. On the one hand, how do we all feel about buying Oud oil distilled from trees in jungles guarded by snipers, that people lose their lives over, etc.? Not to mention, the tree is in effect killed in order to distill the oil. However, the fact that it naturally contracted the bacteria that triggers the Oud resin seems superior to me than taking a perfectly well tree and making it sick, as you say.

This is why I always feel happy when I wear Oud Yusuf. No trees were cut down to distill that oil. In another sense, life is itself a large sacrifice. Even for us to breathe, many living beings are killed in the process of our inhalation and exhalation. As we take steps on the ground, how many microscopic living beings and insects are likely crushed? And life itself is ultimately sacrificed, as no living being lives forever in this earthly world. With that larger picture, I feel able to process a lot more, and don't really feel that its rational to become a Jain (no offense to Jains). On top of that, the sacrificial process by which Oud oil becomes what it is has something to do with the potency of its spiritual quality. Perhaps in Oud oil we can feel, smell, and taste the process of life, and thus the Supreme Sustainer from which life comes and to which life ultimately goes.