Organic Consumers Group Preparing Boycott Of Non-USDA-Sealed "Organic"
This fall the Organic Consumers Association intends to launch a boycott
of personal-care products marketed as "organic" that lack a federal
stamp of approval -- with some exceptions.
"We're starting right now to plan for a national public education
[campaign] ... to get out the very simple message to consumers on a mass
scale - because the mass media are going to pick up on this - [not to]
trust any 'organic' personal-care products that lack the USDA seal," OCA
Executive Director Ronnie Cummins told "The Rose Sheet" July 21.
"And if you want to know the products that do have the USDA seal or
qualify for that, go to our Web page, we will list them all for you," he
said. OCA recognizes that directing consumers to buy only products with
the USDA seal is not a perfect system. Just ask Dr. Bronner's Magic
Soaps. Currently OCA recognizes Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps on its Web
site as a company with one or more body-care products that meet the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's organic standards, and numerous Dr.
Bronner's offerings are listed as safe options on the association's
"Safety Guide" for personal-care shoppers.
Together Dr. Bronner's and OCA filed suit in 2008 against alleged
organic "cheaters," competitors they claim are misleading consumers and
creating an unfair business environment by marketing products as organic
that contain cleansing agents and preservatives made from synthetic or
petrochemical compounds (1 'The Rose Sheet' March 24, 2008).
While Dr. Bronner's and OCA generally share the same vision for the
organic personal-care market, the latter's boycott -- if not effectively
qualified -- could negatively impact Dr. Bronner's business.
Dr. Bronner's offers liquid and bar soaps that are certified to USDA's
standards for products "Made with Organic Ingredients" -- which must
contain at least 70 percent organic ingredient -- but do not qualify for
"Organic" certification, which requires 95 percent organic ingredients
at minimum. According to Dr. Bronner's President David Bronner, it is
impossible to make bar soap that is 95 percent organic because the
amount of sodium needed to saponify exceeds 5 percent. The company
offers some liquid soaps that are certified to USDA's 95 percent
"Organic" criteria, but its bar soaps all are "Made with Organic" under
the NOP.
"Made with Organic" personal-care products are not permitted to wear the
USDA seal on their packaging; therefore Bronner's bar soaps and classic
liquid soaps would be among the products affected by an all-out boycott
on non-USDA-sealed products.
In a July 22 e-mail, David Bronner told "The Rose Sheet" that "certainly
there should be concern and accounting for the few instances of
'in-between' products/brands whose main cleansing and moisturizing
ingredients are in fact made from organic material but don't/can't bear
the USDA organic seal." In fact OCA is prepared to make exceptions. The
group intends to balance its boycott with a "buycott" of what it deems
to be legitimately organic body-care products.
The "buy" list will include not only products that bear the USDA
"Organic" seal, but items that meet the department's "Made with Organic"
standards as well as products compliant with NSF International's
standard for products containing organic materials.
OCA also will stand behind products from manufacturers that pledge to
obtain certification to one of those schemes within a given timeframe.
Body-care items that fall outside of those parameters will be subject to
boycott.
"That's the only way we're going to catch the attention of the public
and point out to them that in general you cannot trust the word
'organic' on the front panel of a personal-care product," Cummins said.
Taking "Coming Clean" National
OCA's first line of attack will be raising awareness through its Organic
Bytes newsletter and via news alerts and petitions circulated on the
Internet.
Cummins noted that the group already has an initiative under way
"exposing the myth of so-called natural food," which in most cases is
just a conventional product with a green veneer, it says.
Such goods are produced using pesticides, chemical fertilizer, hormones,
genetic engineering and sewage sludge and then marketed on claims that
are not certified or policed, according to OCA.
The group's Web site includes a page where visitors can e-mail Whole
Foods Market and United Natural Foods Inc. "and tell them that you will
buy only certified organic products for you and your family."
Cummins said the boycott of body-care products that refuse to "come
clean" is "going to build on the rising tide of consciousness about the
hoax of 'natural' [foods]."
The move represents a broadening of OCA's "Coming Clean" crusade seeking
"organic integrity" in body-care products.
As part of that effort, the group has tested and exposed natural and
organic products containing suspected carcinogen 1,4-dioxane (2 'The
Rose Sheet' March 16, 2009).
Going forward OCA will distribute "buy" leaflets to consumers "that they
can take to their retailers and say, 'Look, these are [certified]
personal-care products. I don't see a lot of them in your store. Would
you please get them, or should I start looking for another natural foods
store that will get them?'"
"Once their customers start pressing them in large-enough numbers, they
usually give in," Cummins added.
OCA has launched similar boycotts against Horizon and Aurora dairy
products it claims are produced via substandard organic operations,
encouraging consumers to pressure national grocery retailers, or the
"Shameless Seven," that have ignored the boycott.
OCA Extends Second Warning
Cummins warned industry attendees of the All Things Organic Conference
and Trade Show in Chicago June 16-18 that OCA was "tired of messing
around" and was considering a boycott of body-care products (3 'The Rose
Sheet' June 15, 2009).
The director says organic "imposters" will be given notice again at
Natural Products Expo East, slated for Sept. 23-26 in Boston.
If the fall meeting of USDA's National Organic Standards Board to
discuss "mislabeled" organic personal care does not result in "quick,
decisive action," OCA will launch the boycott soon afterward, Cummins
indicated.
"This blunt message will get out there," he said, "and I think it's
going to force companies that are dragging their feet to reformulate,
and I think it's going to force USDA to realize they have a problem."
The National Organic Standards Board met in May to address the
"ever-increasing stream of cosmetic/personal-care products making
organic claims continu[ing] to flow into the marketplace," as identified
by its Certification, Accreditation and Compliance Committee.
The committee noted that USDA "is responsible for the product organic
claims but is not currently enforcing this in the area of personal-care
products." Cosmetics were uncomfortably lumped into the National Organic
Program for food in 2005.
In an effort to bring order to the "Wild West" that is organic personal
care, Dr. Bronner's urged NOSB not only to advise USDA to step up
enforcement of its requirements for "Organic" products but also to
establish and police "Made with Organic" standards specifically tailored
to cosmetics (4 'The Rose Sheet' May 11, 2009).
President David Bronner recommended that USDA adopt NSF's standard for
"Made with Organic" products, introduced in February, as its own model.
NSF "Made With" Now "Containing Organic"
In fact NSF has met with USDA to discuss its standard -- "NSF/ANSI 305:
Made with Organic Personal Care Products" -- and the department has
requested that NSF "consider a title and reference modification."
According to NSF, staffers "expressed concern about potential confusion
with USDA policy and the legal implications of a private standard using
the same labeling terminology as that defined within the NOP
regulations" -- specifically the phrasing "Made with Organic."
NSF says it will release a newly titled version of the standard --
"NSF/ANSI 305: Personal Care Products Containing Organic Ingredients" --
though the requirements laid out by the standard have not been changed.
Dr. Bronner's has characterized NSF/ANSI 305 as a responsible compromise
between the "mainstream cosmetic industry and the organic consumer
movement."
The Escondido, Calif. company previously said it was considering
certifying its offerings to NSF's standard.
However, the company may now be backing away from the standard and the
"Containing Organic Ingredients" language, which is "a weaker statement"
than "Made with Organic," a Dr. Bronner's rep noted.
"We're already in the 'Made with' category under [USDA's] organic food
standards. ... We don't need to go for this lower standard, which is a
compromise," he said.
- Ryan Nelson (r.nelson@elsevier.com)