The Reality of Certified Oils

Howdy y'all,

Throughout the below writing you will find an excessive use of Caps .. I
have always done this to emphasize what I consider to be important points
and because I think that by doing so it helps folks to better remember those
points .. I have no apologies for disregarding the rules of grammar. Just
look at it as being a Tennessee Hillbilly stomping his foot when he makes
points that just might show up on the final exam .. difference being y'all
ain't gonna be tested on this information .. but your pocketbook might get
tested. ;-)

Being the Non Politically Correct person I have always been .. I have never
hesitated to kick the beloved Sacred Cows in the Essential Oils (EO)
Industry .. nor have I avoided bursting a few of the balloons of Hype and
Misinformation that are (unfortunately) too often foundations of the
industry. I've never been as successful at doing this as have Martin Watt
and Tony Burfield .. but I do it as best as can and I tell it like I really
think (or know) it is rather than how many folks wish it was because my
memory is not all that great .. if one wishes to be a super marketer and
charismatic con artist they must have an extremely good memory so as to not
trip over their own tales .. like politicians running for elected office
often do. ;-)

I started writing on the fallacy of CO back in the mid 1990s .. Martin and
Tony have written far more than I have on the problems inherent in so-called
Certification programs. None of us have said that these programs are
useless .. just that in the case of EO they are often not dependable .. and
that in reality, it is not possible to certify products from certain areas.
Even if the Certification system is working as it should work, which is too
often NOT the case .. it is the soil (not the products grown in the soil)
that can truly be certified. And .. even if the products alleged to have
been grown in legitimately certified soil were, in fact, grown in that soil
.. there is still no proof that they have not been contaminated by downwind
drift or acid rain or many other forms of fallout. Some of my posts on
this are in the archive of this list.

Taking it a bit further .. lets go beyond plants that we intend to eat in a
salad and such .. and move to EO. If one seeks only so-called (alleged) CO
Essential Oils then they will spend a lot of money but have few EO in
their collection .. simply because most EO are produced in Third World (TW)
and Emerging Market (EM) Countries where Certification is not a norm due to
the major expense of complying with the bureaucratic (though actually, very
loose) requirements. As is the case with most systems, if one has the big
bucks they can work well within the CO system .. the little guys don't have
the swing to do what the big boys can do. On the positive side, odds of
getting a truly Organic product from a TW Country are probably better than
those of getting one from a more developed country .. due to tradition and
economics. Having lived a total of 26 + years in Turkey .. the last "trip"
being 19 + years from 1988 through 2007, I know that fungicides, pesticides
and even commercial fertilizers are rarely used by Turkish farmers because
(1) Their father and grandfather did not use them .. and (2) They can't
afford to purchase them. Of course, most of the EO from Turkey are Wild
Grown in any case .. and they are harvested in areas that are very sparsely
populated .. this is also the case with Wild Grown plants in most of the TW
& EM countries I have worked in or visited.

If .. in fact .. an Aromatic Plant is grown in legitimate CO Soil .. and
then distilled .. the EO from that plant will obviously be more free of
commercial chemicals than an EO distilled from Aromatic Plants plants that
have been sprayed with Commercial Chemicals. If one can purchase those
oils DIRECT from the still .. they can have all kinds of warm fuzzies
about the product .. that is, as far as it not having been directly exposed
to Commercial Chemicals. However, this says nothing about the QUALITY of
the EO.. Certification can't assure this. There are many commercial
chemical free .. pure .. EO out and about that are Low or Mediocre Quality
because the chemical profile of the oil is well outside the profile or
"footprint" of what is considered to be the acceptable range of EO produced
from Aromatic Plants within that Origin country. Certification can NOT
tell us about Quality .. only a Lab Analysis can do this. I believe it
was "Chicken of the Sea" that used to have Charlie Tuna talking with another
Tuna who was dressed in a Tux and quoting Shakespeare .. asking, "Do you
want a Tuna with Good Taste .. or a Tuna that Tastes Good?" ;-)

Take it a bit further .. let's assume that an Aromatic Plant is grown in
legitimate CO Soil .. and the Grower is a Conscientious person and is also
the Distiller of the EO. Buy from that Grower/Distiller and we will get a
truly Certified Organic EO. Problem is that most end users of EO can't
afford to import EO .. they purchase from folks like me and others on this
News Group. We import much of what we offer but its not possible for us to
import ALL of the EO we sell. For many reasons it just not practical or
economically feasible to do this .. especially when we need only one
extremely low cost EO from a particular Origin .. in such a case
shipping and other costs can be far more than the cost of the oil. We
import what we can because it is OUR money we are investing and we are
professional enough to know that we can not stay in business if we spend OUR
money on Garbage. I have known the major sellers on this New Group for
many years and I know that by protecting ourselves we are also protecting
you .. the end user.

For those EO that we do NOT import ourselves .. we turn to the Major
Importers .. many of which have MILLIONS and MILLIONS off dollars tied up in
their stock and they can obtain their stock for far less per kilogram than
we can because at one time they can purchase 500 or 1,000 kilos of even a
very low priced EO. I offer way over 100 EO so I can't afford to have 500
kilos of each one on hand.

ALL of these large importers are not as careful as we try to be ourselves ..
so we do our homework and then seek out those who we believe are
as conscientious and professional as we consider ourselves to be .. again, a
simple matter of logical self-preservation. However, if one of these large
importers DOES NOT purchase an EO direct from the grower/distiller .. if
they purchase from an importer larger than they are .. then even the most
honest and conscientious seller can NOT bet their life that a Certified
Organic EO is in fact an EO that was extracted from an Aromatic Plant that
was grown in legitimate CO Soil .. because it is possible that the larger
importer could have mixed another EO with that CO oil. Some major
importers do not purchase ALL oils directly from the grower/distiller ..
when I owned a Turkish company they often purchased from me because I also
had a American company .. and I spoke Turkish and knew the distillers and
their families .. the buyers trusted me. There were many months where we
would ship over a metric ton of Origanum and other EO to major U.S. importers.
Know that this is also the case for other EO from other countries.

If anyone wants follow up information on WHY I am not overly impressed with
Certified Organic products I will provide it .. On Line. All you have to do
is ask. I will NOT provide it Off Line because I don't have the time now
to be "educating one Aromatic Soul at time." ;-)

Since I came into this business I have used a coding system that is posted
on my BROKEN web site .. as follows. I say Broken because it was broken
even before Friday night when the server for that site went down .. right
now you can't even pull the site up .. nor can I receive email at the
address hosted by that server ButchOwen @ AV-AT .com .. it will be up Monday
(I hope). We are working even harder now to get the new web site on line
.. using a different server.

The Agri Class and Distillation Method Codes for this system are as follows
and I have always felt extremely comfortable using this system:

WG .. Wild Grown - Self propagating - Uncultivated - Harvested by hand in
the wild
CO .. Certified Organic - Certified by a third party
OR .. Organic - Same as CO except NOT Certified
EF .. Ethically Farmed - may or may not be Organic
SE .. Solvent Extracted - Absolutes
HS .. Hydro Steam Distilled
EP .. Expeller Pressed
HD .. Hydro Diffused
SD .. Steam Distilled
CP .. Cold Pressed

There will come a time (soon) where I will not be able to use this system ..
the government will screw it up by demanding that the term Organic be
Certified. How the industry will deal with this then is still a puzzle to
me because .. for example .. ALL of the EO I sell with an Origin of the UK
are grown and distilled by a man who certainly uses NO Commercial Chemicals
.. both Martin Watt and I know him well and we both trust him .. but this
gentleman has said that he will NOT go along with the ridiculous and
expensive requirements to obtain a CO designation for his oils .. his
feelings are shared by many other growers/distillers.

I see this as being no different than the very large vegetable garden I will
be planting in a few weeks .. it will be TOTALLY Organic but not
Certified. There is a need for government oversight in many areas now ..
the U.S. and EU governments have shown major shortfalls in their efforts to
protect us from Hazardous imports from China and other countries but they
still see a need to play Big Brother in areas that are not broken within our
own countries. Tony Burfield and his Cropwatch organization have been
busting butt for a long time trying to protect Europeans from their own
government .. the EU is prohibiting the use of many EO for the most
ridiculous reasons .. and Tony has done much to head them off at the pass ..
he is a thorn in their side. Whether or not his organization will be able
to win these battles remains to be seen but if he loses it will not be for
lack of effort .. and not for lack of presentation of credible information
to counter their ridiculous positions on many EO

Back to CO before I close out .. I offer some CO oils because (1) some
customers want them and (2) I am sometimes able to find reasonably priced CO
oils .. but not always. There are some CO oils that are priced as much as
300% more than the same oils that are Organic .. or even Wild Grown. I am
not foolish enough to buy them and I have come to the conclusion that most
folks think as I do. All of my oils are tested via either GC or GC/MS ..
and I have seen CO oils that tested LOWER in Quality than oils that are not
CO. If a person wants to throw their money away in order to have warm
fuzzies .. then they should do it but they should also understand that they
might be paying for a false sense of security .. the Emperor does NOT always
have new clothes.

There are even many Certified Organic Absolutes out and about .. I offer one
myself .. Vanilla .. but is it logical? Of course not! Regardless of how
an Aromatic Plant is grown .. when you process it with Hexane it takes a
great imagination to believe that it is still a Certified Organic oil.

Would you purchase a Certified Organic EO from China or Russia? It might
surprise some folks to know how often I receive spam from folks claiming to
sell CO oils from these two countries.

Below is one of the reasons why I don't offer California Citrus oils .. I
prefer Italian and Florida Citrus. Should a person be satisfied with a CO
Orange or Grapefruit EO from California? Maybe .. but I am not betting my
money on it.

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/> .. the site you can
not open today .. but I have a print out of the prices so if you need
something ASAP .. just ask. ;-)