The USDA Organic seal for food is intended on helping consumers find products that are not contaminated with pesticides, but pesticides are not really an issue when it comes to personal care products. Chemicals and synthetic ingredients are of far greater concern here. As the SF Chronicle article on this topic points out, there is no hard evidence that products that are made with 95% certified organic ingredients perform better or are safer than products made with the same ingredients that are not certified. Caveat emptor …
The unfortunate reality is very few personal care products can meet this extremely narrow criteria –even most natural products– because there are ingredients that are needed for stability and texture that simply aren’t readily available in a certifiable “organic” form. And based on the current standard if the product isn’t 95-100% organic then you can’t use the seal.
I’m all for some kind of standardization around this issue, but one that is fair and practical, not one that favors only a very small number of companies and/or products because ultimately that’s not good for the consumer or consumer choice.
For those of you who really care about this, you may have noticed that even companies that have this certification only use it on some but not all there products. If you find a moisturizer (lotion or cream) that you really like that has this seal I really want to hear from you! Tell us about the product, how it works and what you like about it. Or conversely, if you’ve tried a product or two with this seal and have been dissatisfied or unhappy with it. Let’s hear from you too! This is a complex issue and it’s important to have an open and transparent dialogue about it.
What a concidence because I was trying to find more information on this topic this evening when I came upon your really interesting blog post…thanks a million for writing this. I will surely be checking up on your blog and visiting again to read new articles.By the way since when have you been blogging? 🙂