Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps Contacts CA Assembly Regarding Weak Organic Body Care Standards

Aug.11, 2003
To: Cathleen Galgiani- Spokeswoman for Barbara Matthews
17th Assembly District

To Whom It May Concern:

Our company, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, manufactures the top-selling soap in the natural marketplace, comprising such well-known retail chains as Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's, along with thousands of smaller independent health food stores and co-operatives.

We have long sought to produce soap made from certified organic oils, and have finally sourced the quality and and quantity of the relevant oils at good prices from certified organic sources. These new soaps are certified under the current USDA organic program for foods by Oregon Tilth, and will be launched this fall.

To be frank, we believe the current California organic regulations as they relate to "organic body care" are pretty weak, as they have no criteria for core ingredients, and stipulate only that 70% of ingredient content by non-water non-salt weight be organic. The latter in itself would be quite rigorous, except companies are exploiting a perceived loophole and touting compliance with these regulations by simply adding flower waters composed mostly of ordinary distilled water from steam to otherwise conventional formulations and counting such distilled water as "organic".

However, insofar as the problem with flower waters can be rectified under the existing SOP program for body care, then the SOP program represents a significant step in the right direction in regulating organic label claims on body care products, such that consumers are not completely defrauded. Consumers have a high degree of trust in the term "organic" and do not want to see it rendered as meaningless as "natural" in the marketplace.

The SOP program as it applies to body care should be strengthened, not weakened, and certainly not gutted altogether to allow for widespread exploitation and evisceration of the term "organic" as it applies to body care. Gutting the state SOP program as it applies to body care threatens to undermine the integrity of the entire organic program, as consumers will come to believe that the term "organic" is simply label and marketing fluff without any connection to sustainable farming, farm worker health and ecological processing of materials.

For the sake of organic integrity and sustainability, please stand firm against any efforts to weaken organic body care standards.

Sincerely,

David Bronner

President

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps