[compost_tea] OT: Organic Trade Association Task Force Kicks Out Leading Natural Soap Company

From: tomjasz <tom_at_livesoil.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 09:25:34 -0000

GREENFIELD, MA - July 23 - The Organic Consumers Association (OCA)
has learned that a member company of the Organic Trade Association's
(OTA) Personal Care Task Force (PCTF) will not be "reappointed" this
week when annual membership is renewed for cosmetics companies. Dr.
Bronner's Magic Soaps of Escondido, Calif., the largest seller of
natural soap in the U.S., will be locked out of PCTF discussions this
fall just as a new organic standard will be developed for eventual
recommendation to the Department of Agriculture's National Organic
Program (NOP). According to several members, the company is being
removed for speaking out against watering down standards for body
care.
"The decision by the PCTF Chair to exclude the nation's leading
natural soap company that has been fighting for strong organic
standards is the latest in a series of missteps by the OTA," said
Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers
Association. "OTA's actions indicate the Personal Care Task Force is
in fact moving to weaken the fledgling organic standards for
cosmetics."

"We tried to work within the system, but the more we uncovered about
flower water and the shenanigans of culprit companies who use them to
greenwash body care products based on conventional synthetic
surfactants, the more hostile various PCTF members became to what we
were saying about the proposed standards," said David Bronner,
president of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. "We could have mislabeled our
soaps 'organic' by using cheap organic flower water mixed with
synthetic surfactants that are often derived from petroleum, and
pretended the ordinary distilled water in flower water is organic.
But our company will not give up on real organic standards, although
it's clear the OTA and much of the so-called "natural" cosmetics
industry is willing to have two standards for organic - one strong
standard for food and another sub-standard for cosmetics."

Recently, Vermont Soap Works was removed from the California Advisory
Group to the California State Organic Program (SOP) for speaking out
against proposed watered-down organic standards. "I couldn't just sit
back and watch while consumer fraud was perpetrated under the cover
of organic personal care," says Larry Plesent, president and founder
of Vermont Soap Works. "The most contentious issue involves the
practice of using 'flower' or 'floral' waters to make an organic
claim. Unlike an infusion or tea, which is made with boiling water,
flower waters are made by steaming plants, and then cooling the steam
back to water. Products made with infusions or teas are not allowed
to use the water in making an organic claim. However, it has become
common practice to use 'Steam Tea' as the main "organic" ingredient
in many personal care products," adds Plesent.

Various companies on the PCTF have reacted in defense of Dr.
Bronner's and are considering ways to reverse the break down of
industry cooperation for developing meaningful organic standards.
Terressentials, a Maryland-based natural body care manufacturer, says
they are disturbed about David Bronner's banishment from the task
force. "We see this action as an attempt to intimidate those who
would speak out against the corruption of organic standards," says
James Hahn, co-founder. Terressentials has decided to remain on the
task force despite serious reservations about the group's efforts to
institute an unnecessary second set of lesser organic standards for
primarily synthetic body care products.

The fraudulent use of water as an "organic" ingredient in some major
corporation's body care products has been getting a lot of attention
in mainstream press, from The New York Times and Los Angeles Times to
Consumer Reports. The OCA has demanded that organic body care
standards should mirror the standards for organic food products. This
means that:

-- The toxicity of each ingredient in the product is minimal.

-- Ordinary water is not counted in any shape or form as contributing
to organic content.

-- Certified organic agricultural raw materials are utilized
exclusively, versus petroleum or conventional vegetable feed-stocks,
in the manufacture of the key basic cleansing and conditioning
ingredients.

-- Manufacture of such ingredients is reasonably simple and
ecological.

The OCA is a grassroots nonprofit organization concerned with food
safety, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, fair trade and
genetic engineering.


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Received on Thu Oct 09 2003 - 21:34:22 EDT

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