Certified Organic ** Or ** The Emperor's New Clothes

[Guest guest]

Butch Owen <butchbsi

Wed, 25 May 2005 13:57:32 -0700

Certified Organic ** Or ** The Emperor's New

Clothes

 

Hi y'all,

 

A slightly modified version of the post I previously sent to the list.

 

 

Hey y'all,

 

After Martin's post on Certified Organic .. I want to again post one I

made a bit ago to this list .. I think it is IMPORTANT that folks do not

forget what he said and what is below. There are a lot of new folks on

this list .. its growing by the week .. for those of you who have read

this before .. your choice is to hit Delete now. ;-)

 

How long .. are we gonna let the slicky boys blow smoke up our butts?

How long .. are we gonna continue to blow smoke up our own butts?

 

If you wanna outdo the family next door you can get a champion bloodline

pup that costs a few thousand .. even though he might be so high strung

your kids can't play with him like they could a mutt. Or you can serve

imported wine even though California and New York produces it as fine as

anywhere in the world. Same goes for Certified Organic EO.

 

We are not eating the oils .. so is it image we are after? I am still

convinced and hope to prove it in time .. that distillation is the best

way pesticides can be efficiently removed .. and I do not believe they

routinely make it through the distillation process in the first place ..

though I will back peddle a bit on that and say that there are a few

illegal (not used in the west) pesticides that are hydrophilic .. I

think that's the best way to describe them .. and it would take a

redistillation to totally remove them.

 

I'll also add that GC or GC/MS is NOT going to identify pesticides in an

EO even if they are in there. The only way it could happen would be if

they were at a very high percentage and the analyst knew exactly which

of the forty eleven zillion chemicals they wanted to detect .. and this

is NOT the way they are conducted .. nor the reason they are conducted.

 

Lemme get on my soap box a while and talk about this subject.

 

1. A Certificate of Organic Certification is for the Grower Only .. if

he is also the distiller then he can use it but there is no guarantee of

Certified Organic (CO) Essential Oil .. its only CO for plant material.

In fact .. its really Certified for the soil .. not even the plants.

 

2. If you buy from a broker/middle man .. he is probably NOT going to

pass it along because it will give you his source. Why should you buy

from him again if you can go to the source?

 

3. Almost all of the Oils from Madagascar are certified by EcoCert ..

ONLY France does business in Madagascar. But if you have followed the

news you'll know that since the beginning of political problems there ..

EcoCert has NOT returned .. the French inspectors are very " cautious " . I

do believe that those farmers in Madagascar who had previously earned

Certified Organic status are still trying to maintain it in order to not

lose years of difficult preparation .. and they know that in time the

EcoCert teams will return.

 

(MY NOTE from today, 22 Oct 06): I have 2 Certificates from Madagascar

that expired in December 2005. The producer says EcoCert didn't inspect

him .. thus, he lost his Certification. He also says that he is working

to get it back and that he's not so foolish as to farm organically for a

long period of time and then change his Modus Operandi and lose all he

had forfeited (money and time) just because he was not inspected.)

 

I have some certificates .. but am missing one. When my present stock

of oils from Madagascar are depleted .. soon .. I am going to come up

with a FIFTH category of Agro Class .. now there are FOUR on my site ..

they are ..

 

WG: Wild grown - Self propagating - uncultivated - harvested by hand in

the wild.

 

CO: Certified Organic - Organic certified by a third party.

 

OR: Organic - same as CO except not certified.

 

EF: Ethically Farmed - May or not be organic.

 

The 5th one will be .. at least till for the immediate future ..

 

CN: Certified Organic .. No certificate available.

 

(MY NOTE from today, 22 Oct 06): I have not done this yet .. and I am

thinking of MAYBE doing away with the CO class anyway because I don't

feel all that comfortable in promoting something I don't believe in.)

 

But .. who is to say that an oil is Organic or Certified Organic? We

can't prove it .. and that is the reason many folks .. big dealers ..

have abandoned the above ratings anyway.

 

The level of self imposed garbage in this industry is extremely high ..

Example follows.

 

My Vanilla Bourbon Absolute from Madagascar .. many folks sell it .. and

its Certified Organic. What does that mean? Means the Vanilla Beans

were grown under CO conditions. But declaring an ABSOLUTE as Certified

Organic .. even though the Vanilla Beans were .. is sorta dumb .. but

still legal. The beans were treated with solvents TWICE to create an

Absolute and we still wind up with a Certified Organic oil ???

 

Does that make sense? Of course not!! But its the system this industry

uses. It is like creating a monster that survives on bovine excrement

and then creating more bovine excrement to keep the monster alive so he

can consume even more bovine excrement.

 

You will note in my list of oils that most of my oils are Wild Grown. I

prefer Wild Grown .. even to Certified Organic. Why? Because I believe

Certified Organic is the biggest piece of humma-humma in the world. It

is political .. it is not efficient .. and it is NOT necessary for any

distilled product. Distillers know that .. but many buyers are easily

impressed by " Certified Organic " .

 

For Cold Pressed oils I can accept a need for Organic .. if not really

for Certified Organic .. but not for distilled oils.

 

This is NOT a salad we are eating .. it is a distilled oil and there is

no way to determine if there is a trace of non organic matter in the oil

by use of GC or GC/MS .. it would take a much higher level of testing ..

like Chiral Column .. and that costs thousands of dollars so it is NEVER

DONE. The entire issue of Certified Organic EO is garbage .. but buyers

in the industry demand warm fuzzies .. and sellers in the industry are

more than willing to baffle the buyers with whatever amount of bovine

excrement or smoke and mirrors is needed.

 

Anyone who demands only Certified Organic EO is going to have a very

small stash of EO because Certified Organic is not the norm .. its the

exception. I buy it when I can because some customers have become

mesmerized by what they see as the authenticity of CO. I know that a

lot of the CO out and about is certified simply because the grower or

producer is in with the right folks or is paying off the right folks.

 

Any regulatory or inspection organization is as strong as its weakest

link .. those weak links are normally due to improper planning and the

fact that they have to hire humans.

 

Ask Martin Watt about this .. he has investigated that and can prove

that there are scams amongst the Certifying Agencies.

 

For veggies for salads, etc., Certified Organic is best but even they

are hard to find Certified. As stated above, this also applies to Cold

or Expeller Pressed Oils. As for distilled oils, I offer Organic and

Wild grown .. but because essential oils contain only non water soluble

components of the plant material in the first place .. I believe heavy

metals can not make it through the distillation process in the second place.

 

When someone decides to deal with only Certified Organic oils .. three

things can be assured.

 

1. They will pay a lot MORE money for them.

 

2. They will have a very SMALL collection of oils.

 

3. They can NEVER be sure they have CO oils!! Why? Because none of

the agencies certify Essential Oils! Surprised? They certify fields

and sometimes (though not always) plants in the fields .. they don't

bother looking at the oils .. nor could they do it easily even if they

wanted to.

 

This article in a European Scientific Journal touches on the addition of

" normal " oils to oils certified as " organic " .

 

" Many certifying bodies (EcoCert, Soil Association) seemingly rely on

inspection regimes, batch tracking and the separate and secure storage

of organic oils, rather than independently analyzing finished oils for

pesticide levels, a situation inviting abuse by unscrupulous traders.

 

There is also the huge question of 'who inspects the inspectors', the

lack of external expert input into their protocols, and the denial of

free public access to the records of these bodies – but these topics

(and many others) are another issue! The labeling laws seem so lax in

the OE, that an advertising claim on a bottle such as, " contains organic

orange oil " , would not invite prosecution if the oil contained 0.1%

organic orange oil and 99.9% non organically produced orange oil – and

who, specifically, is charged with checking anyway, and who has the

necessary expertise? "

 

(Snipped a bunch) " And so many of us ** feel that the whole organic oils

exercise, although possibly very noble in its intent, is not

particularly watertight. " UNQUOTE

 

And .. Certified Organic is NOT an indication of Quality or Purity.

 

One can certify the fields and the plants but that does not mean that

Mother Nature will allow a good production year .. and it does not keep

the dishonest distiller or broker from mixing cheaper oils in the oils

that came from those plants .. or even from adulterating the oils with

cheap, commercial synthetic chemicals.

 

One can not be certain that ground leakage/seepage, downwind drift, acid

rain and a dozen other natural earth or climatic conditions have not

contaminated a crop. And now there is another climatic condition folks

are worrying about .. its called Global Distillation. All the bad stuff

is moving to the North .. depositing itself there from the Southern

Hemisphere. So Yankees .. beware. ;-)

 

Then we have plain old corruption and inefficiency.

 

I have an analysis for ALL of my oils .. they are Lot Number controlled.

I am satisfied that they are pure and quality .. and I am satisfied that

I am doing all I can to ensure quality control. But I live in a world

of reality .. not in a world of fantasy. The unfortunate part is .. I

work in a world of fantasy.

 

So .. even with Certified Organic it is Caveat Emptor .. but some people

want to believe the Emperor has new clothes even if he is stark naked.

 

That's my spiel. Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com