Organic is a powerful word in the minds of millions of Americans.

Market forces seek the broadest, or most diluted definition of the word. Purists insist on a very strict one. Billions of dollars are on the table. Why so much money? Because consumers want products that are not full of synthetic chemicals, cause harm to themselves or our planet, and are in general, non exploitive.

Why not give them what they want?

Most personal care products can be made without the synthetics. Why the controversy? I guess the answer is that, in order to hit predetermined price points, distributor demands and still run all those full page ads, something has got to give. Usually that something is the stuff in the bottle.

Let’s talk about hydrosols. The NOP rules are very clear that water cannot be counted as a percentage of the organic content. Hydrosols are steamed herbs (steam is passed through the plant material, then cooled back to water). QAI (one of hundreds of certifiers) says this water is Organic if the steam goes through organically certified herbs. Fine. Please use and formulate with  organic hydrosols. You just cannot count the water towards your organic percentage content. If you are confused please remember that in today's world, organic can mean made with only 70% organically certified ingredients.

I am not saying hydrosols do not contain valuable molecules from plants, with many herbal and medicinal values. This is all good stuff, but like chamomile tea, you still can’t count the water.

There is a good reason for this. The organic rules were written so that a Pot Pie made with Organic Ingredients, is not using the water in the gravy as the main basis for their Organic claim. In a similar manner, if 70% of a lotion is water, and I use organically certified water to make my claim someone is getting screwed.

Now, in Europe, there are some standards as to what exactly constitutes a hydrosol. If we are running steam through our herbs, at what point do you turn off the steam?  Can you keep running steam through those same tired herbs all day? Point is, there are no rules here in this Wild West of personal care.

It is disingenuous to use tea water as the organic part of an organic product. Organic is supposed to mean something. Organic is supposed to stand for something real. Something pure. Something you can trust.

When the national guidelines for organic foods were being debated, most people in the industry had a pretty good handle on what organic meant for food. When it was proposed that farms that were dumping grounds for municipal sludge could be certified organic, that animals fed nonorganic feed could be labeled organic and so on, quite a tussle ensued. The organic industry united, over 250,000 signatures were garnered, and meaningful standards were adopted in the end.

In personal care the situation is different. Here, the large corporate interests selling products labeled as natural (there is no definition of natural for personal care), are attempting to strong arm and outspend the sensibilities of the majority of natural care producers, and users, who already have a pretty good idea of what organic care products should be.

I am here today representing the Green Products Alliance, a coalition of one hundred manufacturers of high quality natural care products. We know how easy it would be to throw in some hydrosols, slap on an organic sticker and raise the price. Yet our 100 companies are going on record today to tell these guys to HOLD THE WATER. Consumers want a meaningful definition of Organic, and we do too. You can learn more at greenproductsalliance.com

Now my  day  job is to formulate natural, organic personal care products at Vermont Soap. We are handing out samples of our Organic shower gel, made without the chemicals. We want to show you all that this can be done, and that synthetics are not needed to make affordable truly natural and organic personal care products.

Thank you for your time and support.  I hope everyone here will sign the petition at the Organic Consumers Union web site. Thank you.

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This is from the Organic Consumers Union's Coming Clean Campaign - Please sign on!

Please Take 5 Seconds to Support Strong Organic Body Care Standards!

You may have read some recent articles in publications like the New York

Times, Consumer Reports and the Los Angeles Times about a number of

well-known natural body care companies who have been working to "water down"

organic standards for body care products. The Organic Consumers Association

(OCA), a nonprofit watchdog organization, is pressuring the Organic Trade

Association and USDA National Organic Program to adopt strict national

organic standards for body care products. Many businesses, like yours, have

endorsed this campaign, which would require the following criteria for

National organic body care standards:

The toxicity of each ingredient in the product is minimal.

Ordinary water is not counted in any shape or form as contributing to

organic content.

Certified organic agricultural raw materials are utilized exclusively,

versus petroleum or conventional vegetable feed-stocks, in the manufacture

of the key basic cleansing and conditioning ingredients.

Manufacture of such ingredients is reasonably simple and ecological.

If you agree with these common sense criteria, please take a moment to sign

your business on as an endorser. This allows the OCA to let the Organic

Trade Association and USDA know that representatives of the organic industry

want national organic standards regulating body care products, to be as

strong as those regulating our food.

.

IT'S EASY TO SIGN ON:

Simply hit "reply" and let us know the name of your business, your name,

your job title and either your business website address or mailing address.

If this message has been forwarded to you from someone other than OCA,

please sign on by sending this same info to:

info@organicconsumers.org

WANT MORE INFO?

Read the remainder of this email and/or go to

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/

.

Invitation to Formally Endorse OCA's Coming Clean Campaign

The OCA has launched the Coming Clean campaign to counter the fraudulent

"organic" labeling of conventional shampoos, body washes and other body care

products by various so-called "organic" body care companies. These

mislabeled products are undermining the letter and spirit of the organic

regulations, and the problem is fast escalating out of control. Effective

lobbying by various cosmetic companies and associated suppliers and

consultants has resulted in the National Organic Program's (NOP) and

National Organic Standards Board's (NOSB) failure to regulate these

mislabeled "organic" body care products, leading to widespread fraud.

The OCA is dealing with the struggle between the integrity of the organic

paradigm and the hollow market-driven needs of the cosmetics industry.

Unfortunately, the cosmetics industry appears to be winning, and has to date

effectively paralyzed the relevant organic institutions into inaction. Over

the past year, this has enabled a few companies to systematically green-wash

conventional surfactant shampoos, body washes and other body care products

with front panel "organic" claims by counting water from steam as "organic",

in spite of conventional petrochemical and vegetable based surfactants and

preservatives. At least one NOSB board member even provides tacit sanction

regarding this mislabeling and fraud in "organic" body care. Thus, OCA, as a

watchdog for organic consumer protection, has launched the Coming Clean

campaign..

Under the NOP, a front panel organic claim can be made ONLY if the

non-water, non-salt weight of the product is greater than 70%. However,

bogus "organic" cosmetic companies count the distilled water from steam in

"flower waters" or "floral waters" (produced by the steam distillation of

plant material) as "organic" in products whose core ingredients are

conventional petroleum-based and/or non-organic synthetic detergents and

conditioners. Distilled water makes up the vast majority of flower waters,

just like in a tea, yet distilled water from steam in floral water is

claimed to be "organic" in these products.

Consider the following: first, 100 pounds of lavender plant material are

boiled in 100 pounds of water, and the resulting liquid is filtered and

collected; second, 100 pounds of water are converted into steam and passed

through 100 pounds of the same lavender plant material, and condensed and

collected into liquid form. In both cases, the water in liquid or steam form

extracts constituents from the plant material into an aqueous solution,

where the water constitutes most of the resulting product.

The Soil Association, the UK's leading certifier and a benchmark of organic

integrity, does not allow food or cosmetic products to count the distilled

water from steam as organic in floral waters, no more than the boiled water

in a tea. The NOP clearly does not as well, yet has refused to deal with the

widespread fraud in "organic" body care.

Therefore, the OCA is inviting ethical companies, certifiers, stores and

consumers to join together to preserve organic integrity by signing on to

endorse this campaign.

All formal endorsements will be listed on OCA's website.

For more information, please go to

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Ronnie Cummins

National Director

Organic Consumers Association