Certified Organic - The Reality Of It All

[Guest guest]

Howdy y'all,

 

Throughout the below writing you will find an excessive use of Caps .. I

have always done this to emphasize what I consider to be important points

and because I think that by doing so it helps folks to better remember those

points .. I have no apologies for disregarding the rules of grammar. Just

look at it as being a Tennessee Hillbilly stomping his foot when he makes

points that just might show up on the final exam .. difference being y'all

ain't gonna be tested on this information .. but your pocketbook might get

tested. ;-)

 

Being the Non Politically Correct person I have always been .. I have never

hesitated to kick the beloved Sacred Cows in the Essential Oils (EO)

Industry .. nor have I avoided bursting a few of the balloons of Hype and

Misinformation that are (unfortunately) too often foundations of the

industry. I've never been as successful at doing this as have Martin Watt

and Tony Burfield .. but I do it as best as can and I tell it like I really

think (or know) it is rather than how many folks wish it was because my

memory is not all that great .. if one wishes to be a super marketer and

charismatic con artist they must have an extremely good memory so as to not

trip over their own tales .. like politicians running for elected office

often do. ;-)

 

I started writing on the fallacy of CO back in the mid 1990s .. Martin and

Tony have written far more than I have on the problems inherent in so-called

Certification programs. None of us have said that these programs are

useless .. just that in the case of EO they are often not dependable .. and

that in reality, it is not possible to certify products from certain areas.

Even if the Certification system is working as it should work, which is too

often NOT the case .. it is the soil (not the products grown in the soil)

that can truly be certified. And .. even if the products alleged to have

been grown in legitimately certified soil were, in fact, grown in that soil

... there is still no proof that they have not been contaminated by downwind

drift or acid rain or many other forms of fallout. Some of my posts on

this are in the archive of this list.

 

Taking it a bit further .. lets go beyond plants that we intend to eat in a

salad and such .. and move to EO. If one seeks only so-called (alleged) CO

Essential Oils then they will spend a lot of money but have few EO in

their collection .. simply because most EO are produced in Third World (TW)

and Emerging Market (EM) Countries where Certification is not a norm due to

the major expense of complying with the bureaucratic (though actually, very

loose) requirements. As is the case with most systems, if one has the big

bucks they can work well within the CO system .. the little guys don't have

the swing to do what the big boys can do. On the positive side, odds of

getting a truly Organic product from a TW Country are probably better than

those of getting one from a more developed country .. due to tradition and

economics. Having lived a total of 26 + years in Turkey .. the last " trip "

being 19 + years from 1988 through 2007, I know that fungicides, pesticides

and even commercial fertilizers are rarely used by Turkish farmers because

(1) Their father and grandfather did not use them .. and (2) They can't

afford to purchase them. Of course, most of the EO from Turkey are Wild

Grown in any case .. and they are harvested in areas that are very sparsely

populated .. this is also the case with Wild Grown plants in most of the TW

& EM countries I have worked in or visited.

 

If .. in fact .. an Aromatic Plant is grown in legitimate CO Soil .. and

then distilled .. the EO from that plant will obviously be more free of

commercial chemicals than an EO distilled from Aromatic Plants plants that

have been sprayed with Commercial Chemicals. If one can purchase those

oils DIRECT from the still .. they can have all kinds of warm fuzzies

about the product .. that is, as far as it not having been directly exposed

to Commercial Chemicals. However, this says nothing about the QUALITY of

the EO.. Certification can't assure this. There are many commercial

chemical free .. pure .. EO out and about that are Low or Mediocre Quality

because the chemical profile of the oil is well outside the profile or

" footprint " of what is considered to be the acceptable range of EO produced

from Aromatic Plants within that Origin country. Certification can NOT

tell us about Quality .. only a Lab Analysis can do this. I believe it

was " Chicken of the Sea " that used to have Charlie Tuna talking with another

Tuna who was dressed in a Tux and quoting Shakespeare .. asking, " Do you

want a Tuna with Good Taste .. or a Tuna that Tastes Good? " ;-)

 

Take it a bit further .. let's assume that an Aromatic Plant is grown in

legitimate CO Soil .. and the Grower is a Conscientious person and is also

the Distiller of the EO. Buy from that Grower/Distiller and we will get a

truly Certified Organic EO. Problem is that most end users of EO can't

afford to import EO .. they purchase from folks like me and others on this

News Group. We import much of what we offer but its not possible for us to

import ALL of the EO we sell. For many reasons it is just not practical

or economically feasible to do this .. especially when we need only one

extremely low cost EO from a particular Origin .. in such a case

shipping and other costs can be far more than the cost of the oil. We

import what we can because it is OUR money we are investing and we are

professional enough to know that we can not stay in business if we spend OUR

money on Garbage. I have known the major sellers in this industry for

many years and I know that those who protect themselves also protect the end

users.

 

For those EO that we do NOT import ourselves .. we turn to the Major

Importers .. some of which have MILLIONS and MILLIONS off dollars tied up in

their stock and they can obtain their stock for far less per kilogram than

we can because at one time they can purchase 500 or 1,000 kilos of even a

very low priced EO. I offer way over 100 EO so I can't afford to have 500

kilos of each one on hand.

 

ALL of these large importers are not as careful as most of us try to be

ourselves .. so we do our homework and then seek out those who we believe

are as conscientious and professional as we consider ourselves to be ..

again, a simple matter of logical self-preservation. However, if one of

these large importers DOES NOT purchase an EO direct from the

grower/distiller .. if they purchase from an importer larger than they are

... then even the most honest and conscientious seller can NOT bet their life

that a Certified Organic EO is in fact an EO that was extracted from an

Aromatic Plant that was grown in legitimate CO Soil .. because it is

possible that the larger importer could have mixed another EO with that CO

oil. Some major importers do not purchase ALL oils directly from the

grower/distiller .. when I owned a Turkish company they often purchased from

me because I also had a American company .. and I spoke Turkish and knew the

distillers and their families .. the buyers trusted me. There were many

months where we would ship over a metric ton of Origanum and other EO to

major U.S. importers. Know that this is also the case for other EO from

other countries.

 

If anyone wants follow up information on WHY I am not overly impressed with

Certified Organic products I will provide it .. On Line. All you have to do

is ask. I will NOT provide it Off Line because I don't have the time now

to be " educating one Aromatic Soul at time. " ;-)

 

Since I came into this business I have used a coding system that is posted

on my BROKEN web site. I say Broken because it was broken even before

Friday night when the server for that site went down .. right now you can't

even pull the site up .. nor can I receive email at the address hosted by

that server ButchOwen @ AV-AT .com .. it will be up Monday (I hope). We

are working even harder now to get the new web site on line .. using a

different server.

 

The Agri Class and Distillation Method Codes for this system are as follows

and I have always felt extremely comfortable using this system:

 

WG .. Wild Grown - Self propagating - Uncultivated - Harvested by hand in

the wild

CO .. Certified Organic - Certified by a third party

OR .. Organic - Same as CO except NOT Certified

EF .. Ethically Farmed - may or may not be Organic

SE .. Solvent Extracted - Absolutes

HS .. Hydro Steam Distilled

EP .. Expeller Pressed

HD .. Hydro Diffused

SD .. Steam Distilled

CP .. Cold Pressed

 

There will come a time (soon) where I will not be able to use this system ..

the government will screw it up by demanding that the term Organic be

Certified. How the industry will deal with this then is still a puzzle to

me because .. for example .. ALL of the EO I sell with an Origin of the UK

are grown and distilled by a man who certainly uses NO Commercial Chemicals

... both Martin Watt and I know him well and we both trust him .. but this

gentleman has said that he will NOT go along with the ridiculous and

expensive requirements to obtain a CO designation for his oils .. his

feelings are shared by many other growers/distillers.

 

I see this as being no different than the very large vegetable garden I will

be planting in a few weeks .. it will be TOTALLY Organic but not

Certified. There is a need for government oversight in many areas now ..

the U.S. and EU governments have shown major shortfalls in their efforts to

protect us from Hazardous imports from China and other countries but they

still see a need to play Big Brother in areas that are not broken within our

own countries. Tony Burfield and his Cropwatch organization have been

busting butt for a long time trying to protect Europeans from their own

government .. the EU is prohibiting the use of many EO for the most

ridiculous reasons .. and Tony has done much to head them off at the pass ..

he is a thorn in their side. Whether or not his organization will be able

to win these battles remains to be seen but if he loses it will not be for

lack of effort .. and not for lack of presentation of credible information

to counter their ridiculous positions on many EO

 

Back to CO before I close out .. I offer some CO oils because (1) some

customers want them and (2) I am sometimes able to find reasonably priced CO

oils .. but not always. There are some CO oils that are priced as much as

300% more than the same oils that are Organic .. or even Wild Grown. I am

not foolish enough to buy them and I have come to the conclusion that most

folks think as I do. All of my oils are tested via either GC or GC/MS ..

and I have seen CO oils that tested LOWER in Quality than oils that are not

CO. If a person wants to throw their money away in order to have warm

fuzzies .. then they should do it but they should also understand that they

might be paying for a false sense of security .. the Emperor does NOT always

have new clothes.

 

There are even many Certified Organic Absolutes out and about .. I offer one

myself .. Vanilla .. but is it logical? Of course not! Regardless of how

an Aromatic Plant is grown .. when you process it with Hexane it takes a

great imagination to believe that it is still a Certified Organic oil.

 

Would you purchase a Certified Organic EO from China or Russia? It might

surprise some folks to know how often I receive spam from folks claiming to

sell CO oils from these two countries.

 

Below is one of the reasons why I don't offer California Citrus oils .. I

prefer Italian and Florida Citrus. Should a person be satisfied with a CO

Orange or Grapefruit EO from California? Maybe .. but I am not betting my

money on it.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/> .. the site you can

not open today .. but I have a print out of the prices so if you need

something ASAP .. just ask. ;-)

 

 

 

Top Ten Dirty Cities in the U.S.A.

http://body.aol.com/condition-center/respiratory-health/polluted-cities

 

Three of those cities are in California.

 

 

Noumber 7 is Visalia, California .. one of the most abundant agricultural

regions of the United States.

 

Number 3 is Bakersfield, California .. it also has a lot of agriculture.

 

Number 1 is Los Angeles, California .. not near as much agriculture around

there as we find in Visalia and Bakersfield.