Organic Trade Association Task Force Kicks Out Leading Natural Soap Company that Stands for Strong Organic Standards

GREENFIELD, MA, July 22 -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, California, 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 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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