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Paper short abstract

Sea buckthorn has been used in healing for millennia. East German breeders, farmers and recultivation experts embraced it, but with the transition to capitalism, their research was defunded. Can sea buckthorn support the just green transition as an import substitute for orange juice from Brazil?

Paper long abstract

The wild sea buckthorn shrub (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) has been used in traditional medicines across Eurasia. As a pioneer plant it has thrived in harsh environments. Since the 1960s, East German agrobiologists selected local sea buckthorn cultivars for coast protection, to foster an import substitution of citrus fruits, and to recultivate pits especially in lignite-mining regions. The political and economic transition of 1989/90 led to a defunding of sea buckthorn research, but enthusiasts continued to research, promote and cultivate their “Lemon of the North” without pesticides, fertilizers and irrigation. Spurned by short-term Federal and EU funding schemes, sea buckthorn-human relations underwent several transitions, booms and busts. Notable were the foundation of Sanddorn e.V., the association for sea buckthorn and wild plants, in 2000, and the organization of the International Sea Buckthorn Association conference in Potsdam, in 2012. Today, a dozen farms produce five thousand tons of sea buckthorn fruits per year, and process them into drinks, food, health and well-being products. In 2025, the central sea buckthorn juice producer (2000 tons) has tapped into green just transition funds and installed solar panels to power his factory. Meanwhile, a dearth of orange juice caused by climate turbulences in Brazil prompted its sales representative to recover the import substitution idea and newly dub sea buckthorn the “Orange of the North.” Ironically, the plant itself struggles to resist climate change. The paper discusses its socio-legal and ecological prospects to continue to support more just and green transitions in the future.