Interesting post this weekend on the Good Blog. As has been expected for some time, “several certified organic companies (like Dr. Bronner’s and Intelligent Nutrients) have filed a complaint with the USDA’s National Organic Program against allegedly fake-organic companies for misuse of that ubiquitous buzzword.” It seems that this could be the impetus to force the personal care industry to adopt similarly strict standards to the food industry regarding the use of “organic” on labels.
The What is Natural? page on Abe’s Market defines our standards to which products must adhere to be eligible for sale on our site. While we recommend that sellers get their products certified by some of the reputable certifying agencies – the Organic Trade Association, the Natural Product Association, Green Seal – we do not mandate it. Frankly, for smaller companies to get certified can be challenging financially and a big time suck. For many companies this is outright impossible or, at least, impossible to do without passing on significant cost to the consumer.
This is one more reason we’re fans of facilitating the buyer-seller community. If you’re a buyer and you have any questions about a seller’s products, just ask that seller. His/her contact info is always on his/her seller page. We’ve actually facilitated some dialogue between buyers and sellers, much to the delight of both parties. One recent query from buyer to seller even ended up with the two agreeing to work together to develop and test new products.
While we agree that standards protecting against consumers being misled is important, we advocate for buyers and sellers communicating openly, honestly and directly about product details – farmers market style.
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February 2nd, 2010 at 6:19 am
Hey Jon, thanks – interesting post. As an organic products consumer, it’s disturbing to me that it’s so expensive and time consuming for a legit organic company to get certified. Are there any movements afoot to make that process easier? The direct communication for clarification, farmers’ market style, is great, but I’d like to see this too.
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:55 am
Mick – thanks for chiming in. It actually seems that it’s only going to get harder for companies to get certification. As this issue is coming more under scrutiny, I suspect that certifying agencies will actually create more rigid standards for granting certification. While this may be good for discerning consumers, it’s a tough thing for producers, especially smaller ones without deep pockets. While direct communication with producers isn’t highly scalable, and it may not be perfect for consumers, I think it’s the best synthesis of trust for the consumer and cost to the producer. I’m all for an easier (and cheaper) process for legitimate natural and organic producers to get trusted certification.