OCA & Dr. Bronner's Challenge Weak Ecocert & OASIS Standards

Cease & Desist Letters Sent to Certifying Standards of Fraudulent 'Organic'
Claims on Personal Care

ANAHEIM, Calif., March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ - Based on extensive
surveys, organic consumers seek cleansing ingredients in "Organic," "Organics"
or "Made with Organic" branded and labeled soaps, shampoos and body washes,
that are made from organic as distinct from conventional agricultural
material, produced without synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides,
and such ingredients should be free of petrochemical compounds.

Ecocert is a French-based certifier with a standard that allows not only
cleansing ingredients made from conventional versus organic agriculture, but
also allows inclusion, in the cleansing ingredients contained in products
labeled as ":Made with Organic" ingredients, of certain petrochemicals such as
Amidopropyl Betaine in Cocamdiopropyl Betaine. Even worse, despite Ecocert's
own regulations prohibiting the labeling as "Organic" of a product containing
less than 100% organic content, Ecocert in practice engages in "creative
misinterpretation" of its own rules in order to accommodate clients engaging
in organic mislabeling. For instance, Ecocert certifies the Ikove brand's
cleansing products to contain less than 50% organic content, noted in small
text on the back of the product, where all cleansing ingredients are
non-organic including Cocamidopropyl Betaine which contains petroleum
compounds. Yet the product is labeled "Organic, Amazonian Avocado Bath &
Shower Gel." Another instance is Stella McCartney's "100% Organic" CARE line
certified by Ecocert that labels products as "100% Organic" that are not 100%
Organic alongside ones that are; the labels of products that are not 100%
organic simply insert the word "Active" before "Ingredients." In allowing
such labeling, Ecocert simply ignores the requirements of its own
certification standards. Furthermore, the primary organic content in most
Ecocert certified products comes from "Flower Waters" where up to 80% of the
"organic" content is just regular tap water that Ecocert counts as "organic."

Explicitly relying on the weak Ecocert standard as precedent, the new Organic
and Sustainable Industry Standard ("OASIS") -- a standard indeed developed
exclusively by certain members of the industry with no consumer input --
permits certification of products outright as "Organic" (rather than as "Made
with Organic" ingredients) even if such products contain hydrogenated and
sulfated cleansing ingredients such as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate made from
conventional agricultural material grown with synthetic fertilizers,
herbicides and pesticides, and preserved with synthetic petrochemical
preservatives such as Ethylhexylglycerin and Phenoxyethanol. [Reference:
OASIS Standard section 6.2 and Anti-Microbial List] The organic content is
required to only be 85%, which in water and detergent-based personal care
products, means organic water extracts and aloe vera will greenwash
conventional synthetic cleansing ingredients and preservatives.

The OASIS standard is not merely useless but deliberately misleading to
organic consumers looking for a reliable indicator of true "organic" product
integrity in personal care. Organic consumers expect that cleansing
ingredients in products labeled "Organic" be made from organic not
conventional agriculture, to not be hydrogenated or sulfated, and to be free
from synthetic petrochemical preservatives. Surprisingly, companies
represented on the OASIS board, such as Hain (Jason "Pure, Natural & Organic";
Avalon "Organics") and Cosway (Head "Organics"), produce liquid soap, bodywash
and shampoo products with petrochemicals in their cleansers even though use of
petrochemicals in this way is not permitted even under the very permissible
OASIS standard these companies have themselves developed and endorsed.

Dr. Bronner's and the Organic Consumers Association plan to pursue legal
remedies on Earth DayApril 20th, if they do not receive responses indicating
these certifiers will cease certifying outright organic claims in California
by September 1, 2008.

SOURCE Organic Consumers Association

Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association, +1-218-226-4164; or Adam
Eidinger, +1-202-744-2671, for the Organic Consumers Association