GC and GC/MS

June 25, 2004

<<

I don't eat canned foods here in Turkey .. buy veggies from the local

markets and I know that these farmers are not using pesticides .. not

because they give a crap about being organic .. but because they can't

afford it .. and it wasn't the way their pappy and grandpappy did it.

We all want to eat and feed our families the healthiest foods we can

find but we're not always able to know if we are doing that. There are

acceptable levels of rat hairs, bug turds and pesticides, etc., in all

foods .. same goes for radioactive contamination .. and thinking about

this too much can make us sick. >>

Well said

Second part to that is the storage/shipping factor..

which is a big factor in the US when it comes to fresh veggies and I think to

EO's, too.

C-M

June 25, 2004

Hi Michelle,

> Hi Again Butch

>

>>>She then went on to tell me about a Neroli that they recently tested for

>>>a large company which was " full of pesticides.

>>

>>They can not determine if pesticides are in an oil with GC/MS.

>>

> SO- can anything- is it possible to determine if oils are pesticide free?

Yes .. there are tests that can pick up a heavy presence .. and very

expensive and sophisticated tests that can pick up a small presence but

they are not routinely used in this industry. Some folks state that

" no indication of pesticides were noted in the sample tested. " That is

not a lie .. and it gives some folks false warm fuzzies.

IF .. someone were to be willing to spend the big bucks .. I would give

heavy odds that they could test a dozen so-called " Certified Organic "

oils and find 2 or 3 of them contained pesticides. I say this because

of my total lack of confidence in the Certifying system .. and when it

does work correctly (which is rare) they only test the soil .. not the

plants .. and more importantly .. not the oil. So if all is well and

the farmer is following all the rules like a good feller .. it means

that the plants he distills are pesticide free and so is the oil but

after it leaves his hands its anybody's guess what happens. And in most

cases farmers don't distill .. they sell the raw materials to a major

distiller. After those pesticide free plants are turned over to that

distiller .. again .. its anybody's guess what goes down.

Many growers are not bothering to mess with the expense and bureaucracy

of Certifying Agencies. I've just received an outstanding Melissa from

the UK. It is Organic .. no way will anyone find pesticides, etc., in

it regardless of the test they use. But it is NOT Certified Organic.

During my commo with the grower/distiller the following went down:

I asked:

> Is it English grown and distilled?

He replied:

>> YES, ABSOLUTELY OUR OWN FROM SEED ONWARDS - we do everything, even

>> propagate the species to ensure the " wild " strain.

I asked:

> Is it Certified Organic?

He replied:

>> My Melissa is not certified organic but it is totally free from any

>> form of treatment. Weeding of the crop is done entirely by physical

>> means and no pesticides are ever used. The crop can be in the sun or

>> in the shade. We are extremely fussy about the chemistry. These are

>> not " mass " distillations but individual distillations of around 6.5

>> tonnes biomass each.

>>

>> We have never sold it as " organic certified " because it has never been

>> so. Nobody else is producing it in England and the only other that

>> has been available from an English aromatherapy company is in 10ml

>> bottles and it was of French origin and very dubious.

Perhaps you know that it takes in excess of 5.5 tons of aromatic to

produce a kilo of Melissa

In any case .. I believe him .. I have a very detailed GC/MS and I will

offer it as Organic .. Not Certified .. as I do many EO. I am aware

that I can spend the extra bucks to buy rubber stamped Certified Organic

oils and I can ask higher prices .. and I can give many buyers all kinds

of warm fuzzies .. but I can't push something I don't truly believe in.

In fact, I still doubt the validity of some claims used to justify the

higher costs of Certified Organic .. of folks having found pesticides in

distilled EOs .. because almost all pesticides are heavy metals and are

not water-soluble (if they were they would not remain in the soil) so I

can't accept them making it through the steam distillation process in

the second place.

Some folks will disagree with me .. others smarter than me agree ..

those who disagree would do well to support that disagreement with more

than an obscure reference from a company that claims to deal in only

Certified Organic .. or .. from some one who leans Green and is likely

to disregard any information contrary to their contrary position.

For oils .. I go with Organic or Wild Grown .. and Certified Organic

from time to time .. but Certified is not a Silver Bullet.

Of course, we must ensure we have Organic Cold-Pressed oils because

pesticides residues will remain on them when pressed.

For vegetables .. I go with Organic but I don't have access to Certified

Organic veggies here and I'm not sure I would pay the price for them if

I lived in the USA. I pitched on my objections to CO during my talk up

in Toronto .. and gave a laundry list of reasons why contamination of

crops that are Certified is not only likely but normal.