USDA Organic Certification
Standards Slipping!

Up-until-now USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Organic Certification has been regarded as one of the World's Gold Standards. But in recent times worrying reports have been indicating that the this much vaunted organic endorsement could soon become no more than FOOL'S GOLD!

It seems likely that the USDA are on the verge of allowing a plethora of (well, 38 to be exact) 'ingredients' into their 'acceptable' category that are PATENTLY NOT ACCEPTABLE as organic product ingredients just because many manufacturers have ALREADY been exploiting a bit of 'loose' stipulation of ingredient requirements over recent years...

The LOGICAL thing, of course, is (1) To tighten up the 'legalese', (2) To instruct manufacturers to 'reformulate' their products within a given time span, or else to suffer loss of their certification...

But, hey! That could mean one or two fail to comply! They could lose certification!...They could even lose some sales!!

BUT NO! A bit of corporate pressure has led to the likelihood of more-than-just-a-thin-end of a wedge being driven into the standards of what has, until now, been regarded as one of the worlds leading organic certifications!

The simple message is -- profit is more important than TRUE organic standards -- the response from consumers should be FORGET USDA as a reliable form of organic certification! Rely only on those who actually STICK to applying real standards to their organic requirements -- like ACO, Australian Certified Organic.

It seems necessary that for those who are seriously committed to buying and using TRULY organic products -- as opposed to 'dubiously' labelled and certificated products -- the USDA must now be 'relegated' to the league of unreliable 'also rans'...

What is the point of a certification that allows a whole range of questionable ingredients into their 'supposedly organic' products? -- Such shallow commercial prioritization just stinks! PLUS it shows how little the USDA REALLY believes in organic values...they MUST simply see it as a way to divest the easily confounded consumer out of a few more dollars for inferior products with untrustworthy organic provenance!

In fact they only allowed a 7 day consultation period (BTW this period finished over a week ago as of writing this item, on 22 May 2007!) for any comments on their proposals... So what hope for meaninguful feedback from the majority of consumers who might have made useful comment on this impending travesty?

IF USDA go ahead and compromise their standards as they seem likely to do -- then the message is CLEAR -- simply ignore/boycott products that ONLY feature the potentially unreliable USDA organic certification and choose ONLY organic products that ALSO carry other, more reliable certification.

NOTE: For what is probably the safest, and truest organic range of body care, hair care, skin care and cosmetics, that have uniquely received only the highest reliable food grade organic certification, see www.saferalternative.com and read more WHY YOU AND YOUR FAMILY need to 'go organic'.