Quote Originally Posted by weeble View Post
does this mean none of my gathering counted prior to adding the achievement system?
That's exactly what it means.

why in there right minds does someone that already did it have to start over and go farm them again?
Most likely, because they didn't have a choice. Best guess is that they simply didn't save your harvest counts before achievements started. The data needed to award you your tool just doesn't exist and there's no way short of time travel to get it now.