PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Eliminate Misrepresentation of Conventional Personal Care Products as "Organic"
  1. Signatures
    104 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. USDA Deputy Secretary of Agriculture (Ms. Kathleen Merrigan)
  2. Created By
    Terressentials Organics
    MD
About this Petition Petition Letter

 

Hey, folks!

The battle to save our organic standards from corporate takeover and to protect the integrity of the phrase "certified organic" is a boiling volcano that's about to erupt.  With your support, we have had a small victory in that we were finally able to persuade a subcommittee of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to make a formal recommendation to the USDA to require personal care product companies that are making "organic" claims to have their products officially certified under the National Organic Program (as all organic foods, fibers, textiles and clothing are currently required to do).  This new NOSB recommendation is excellent news, but we're only half of the way there.  To bring this recommendation home to the USDA, we need your help.  If you have been waiting for something important to act upon, this is now the time for you to make your voice heard!  The fate of the organic label is resting in your lap and your participation is greatly needed now, more than ever.

Please help us to stop personal care product companies from labeling their synthetic chemical body care products as organic even though they're not!  Join with us in telling the USDA and the NOSB that we want the word "organic" -- whether it is used on foods, personal care, pet food products, dietary supplements, or clothing, textile or household products -- to mean that the product that uses the word "organic" or "organics" on its label is a genuine certified organic product that is in compliance with our National Organic Program regulations.

So friends, please take a minute to help preserve the integrity of the organic label and keep organic pure for yourself, your family, small family farms and small honest producers by signing on to the letter below and sending it to Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the USDA and Valerie Frances, Executive Director of the National Organic
Standards Board.  We only have a short window -- less than thirty days -- for  comments, so it's important to send your letter now.  Please also share this campaign page link with as many people as you can think of and ask them to send a letter, too! 

We greatly appreciate that you are taking a stand to protect the dignity of the organic label.

For additional information, here's a link to the powerful NOSB
recommendation:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5079488&;acct=nosb

Thanks so much for taking the time and making the effort to save the integrity of Organic!  You're our hero!

Recent Signatures

Eliminating Labeling Fraud in Organic Personal Care Products

Dear Ms. Merrigan and Ms. Frances,

I am writing to request that the NOSB and the USDA adopt the NOSB's "Solving the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care Products" recommendation. Please reference Docket No. AMS-TM-09-0060.

I do not believe that it is in the best interests of farmers, consumers or the National Organic Program to continue to allow personal care companies to advertise their products and companies as "organic" or "certified organic" when they are sold in the US and they are not USDA certified organic products.

As USDA has acknowledged that organic products are now mainstream, it is crucial that US consumers be able to trust that the word "organic" has one meaning in the USA -- no matter what product it is on. There needs to be just one organic standard in the US and consumers need to feel confident that the organic claims on products they purchase are represented accurately on the label and in all marketing materials. All products sold in the US that are designed to be consumed -- eaten or rubbed into the body -- and that are labeled "organic," should meet the current USDA organic standard as it is written, without amending the organic rules or expanding the National List.

Thank you for considering the concerns of organic consumers, organic farmers and certified organic personal care products producers.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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