Organic Personal Care to Be Held to Same Law as Organic Food

National Organic Standards Board Votes to Crack Down on Organic Personal Care Cheaters2009-11-06 – Organic Consumers Association

In a milestone victory resulting from years of work by the US organic community to address known fraud in the organic marketplace, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has voted 12 to 1 for the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) to enforce the law for organic personal care just like they do for organic food.

This would mean shampoos and other body care products that claim to be organic, but are not certified, would be forced to drop the organic claims made on their products or improve formations to meet organic standards.

Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) had this to say.

“I’m really pleased by the NOSB’s recommendation.  Brands that are using the word organic improperly should be on notice that USDA enforcement is imminent. Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan has said that she is going to get ‘tough on crime’ in the organic industry. At the NOSB meeting this week, National Organic Program director Miles McEvoy announced a ‘new age of enforcement’ in organic. I expect them to make organic cosmetics fraud a top priority. In the meantime, retailers should start cleaning up their body care aisles. Whole Foods Market, for one, was a big supporter of the NOSB recommendation.”

At the end of September, the OCA promised to announce the names of brands that have cheated consumers for years and recommend honest organic brands in order to promote certified organic personal care. As of today, the Boycott/Buycott is in effect.

Major Brands OCA Will Boycott:

Desert Essence Organics Body Care, Organics by Noah’s Naturals, Giovanni Organic Cosmetics, Nature’s Gate Organics, Amazon Organics, JASON Pure Natural and Organic, and Avalon Organic

Major Brands With USDA Organic Seal and OCA Will BUYcott, encouraging Consumers to support:

Alteya, Amrita, Baby Bear Shop, Badger Balm, Buddha Nose, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Earth Mama and Angel Baby, Kimberly Organics, Little Angel, Mercola, Motherlove, ONEgroup, Organicare, Origins Organics, Purely Shea, Rainwater Organic Lotion, Rose Tattoo Aftercare, SoCal Cleanse, Seasons of the Soul, Sensibility Soaps/Nourish, Terressentials, Trillium Organics, Vermont Soap.

Dan Giacomini, the only NOSB member who voted against the personal care recommendations did so because he felt the board was looking at things in a limited way. He wanted to address fraud in all product sectors, such as dry cleaning and not simply personal care.

The Coming Clean Campaign has been working to clean up the natural and organic personal care industry for the past six years. To view the Certification Commitment Contract; the NOSB Recommendation or for further information on the Coming Clean Campaign, go to: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm

In response to the fore mentioned article, published on http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19549.cfm Trillium Organics Founder and Formulator Karen Ciesar states,

“Trillium Organics and the other companies on the BUYcott list have been taking the steps to ensure our products are verifiably Organic for many years, without much hope that the consumer could tell the difference between real and pretend organics. It’s heartening to see that organic integrity is starting to gain a legal foothold in our marketplace”.

I personally want to point out that just because some of these companies are not certified organic doesn’t mean that they aren’t natural, or aren’t better then say, Dove, Oil of Olay, Estee Lauder etc etc etc.

What this ruling means is no more trickery. If it is organic, then you will have it certified. At least in order for them to boast about it being Organic. Another way to try and halt some of the major greenwashing the goes on every second in this country.

I think this is fantastic! And well overdue. Hopefully this will make it a little bit easier for the everyday consumer to know exactly who is organic and who isn’t.

Now if we could only do something about all the greenwashing. ::cough-Clorox greenworks::

Karissa Gindling™ for Prissy Green™ ©

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