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

[Guest guest]

Hey y'all,

 

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

 

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

along because he has given you his source .. and why should you buy from

him again if you can go to the source. They are not dumb people.

 

3. Almost all of the Oils from Madagascar were 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 .. but not now.

 

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.

 

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 is garbage .. but buyers in

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

than willing to baffle 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 .. 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 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 did not

contaminate a crop.

 

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