The gathering achievement requires need to be reassessed. Crafting I can deal with since if you level from 1 to 50 you get within a reasonable range of the achievement. It just takes a little bit more effort and you have the advantage of hasty hand to complete the task.
Gathering on the other hand is no where near the ballpark of it, and asks of you to do it per zone with no quicker method available and more down time between actions.
I leveled from 30ish to 50 only at Iron Lake after the system went into place for mining, and I'm only a quarter way through just that area's goal.
I think toning down the gathering achievement would make the entire task more fun, and more enjoyable for a larger crowd of customers.
If a lot of your older, loyal, customers feel cheated and frustrated with the way it is designed now, it's probably not the best model to move forward with. ^^;