At Mountain Rose Herbs we are proud to be the nations largest retailer of certified organic herbal products. In fact, we 
believe that when it comes to your health and well being, organics should be your first and only choice. When we review materials, or survey harvesting sites we always take our health, and the health of our customers into very serious consideration. If an herbal product is available in a Certified Organic form, that will be our first and only choice for our products, regardless of price. We are hopeful that one-day soon all the products that you see throughout our catalog will be grown and sold with organic certification, and we are currently forming partnerships with several organic associations and farmers. The point of this is to implement a ubiquitous acceptance of organic herb cultivation and to introduce more of these products to the public. We can never stress the importance of organics enough, so to make things simple we have highlighted why the world needs not just organic but certified organic. There is a small selection of herbal products offered by Mountain Rose Herbs that are not certified organic. In this case, they were harvested in the wild (wildcrafted), thus liberating ourselves from commercial farming dependencies, where chemical use may be employed.
Pesticides? No Thanks!
Organic farming methods often involve more labor but take far less of a toll on the environment and your health. In fact they improve the local ecology through soil building, crop rotation, careful harvesting, assimilation of the local environment and composting. Conventional non-organic crops require large amounts of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers which are directly sprayed on the crops or injected into the ground. This presents serious problems in the form of run-off from the originating farms, and contributes to the contamination of our rivers, creeks, lakes and ground water supply. This residue will also be fed through wildlife by a process that is known as bio-accumulation, forever changing the blueprints mother nature designed. It also neutralizes the composition of the soil creating an "addict"-like dependency for synthetic supplements, which of course lead to an increased use in chemicals. We need to remind ourselves that when we do not buy organic, we are assuming a risk. Not only with the planet but also with our health.
Benefits of Buying Organic
1. Chemical free food/herbs. (Need we say more?)
2. Natural sustainable agriculture. (Organic crops build healthy soil through crop rotation, using composting methods, and relying on natural cycles of life to help reap bountiful harvests)
3. Farm worker safety. (Non-organic harvesters are directly exposed to agricultural chemicals. Adding enormous health risks, skin irritations, lung degeneration, and several known cancers. Organic harvesters need not worry about this)
4. Reduced pollution. (Organic agriculture avoids substances that contribute to
air, water, and soil pollution and it does not contribute to the problem of chemical manufacturing and waste disposal)
5. Our bodies will thank us!
Some Interesting Facts Concerning Pesticides
1. The EPA estimates that US sales of pesticides in 2000-2001 exceeded $11 billion dollars, thus representing over 2 billion pounds of pesticides being dumped on U.S. farm soil, homes, gardens, schools, golf courses and more. This number is about 8 pounds for every man, woman and child in the entire country.
2. There are over 21,000 different pesticides on the U.S. market containing over 875 active compounds. Many of these have been proven to have health implications and the others are unknown.
3. Lawn pesticides and herbicides can cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, developmental disorders, and will double the risk of canine lymphoma for your dogs just from the exposure.
4. Since 1945, total U.S. crop losses from insect damage have nearly doubled. During the same time, insecticide use has increased tenfold. Today, seventy-one known carcinogenic pesticides are sprayed on food crops. (In Harmony's report, "Pesticides: Losing Their Effectiveness")
5. EPA estimates that there are approximately 20,000 physician diagnosed pesticide poisonings each year among agricultural workers. These are only thee ones which have been reported.
6. Pound for pound, children absorb a higher concentration of pesticides and herbicides than adults.
7. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, only 1% of all imported fruits and vegetables are tested by the Food and Drug Administration for illegal pesticide residues.
8. The CDC has gone on record as stating… “Pesticides are toxic to life forms by their very design”
Use At Least 10% Organic For A Better World
Here are some statistics concerning the incorporation of organic products into our own lifestyles which we find to be faithful and staggering.
By converting at least 10% of your food, fiber and cosmetic purchases you will;
- Eliminate pesticides from 98 million daily
- Assure 20 million daily servings of milk that are produced without antibiotics & genetically modified growth hormones.
- Assure 53 million daily servings of pesticide-free fruit and vegetables. (Enough for 10 million kids to have five daily servings.)
- Eliminate use of growth hormones, genetically engineered drugs and feeds, and 2.5 million pounds of antibiotics used on livestock annually. (More than twice the amount of antibiotics used to treat human infections.)
- Assure that 915 million animals are treated more humanely.
- Fight climate change by capturing an additional 6.5 billion pounds of carbon in soil. (That's the equivalent of taking 2 million cars, each averaging 12,000 miles per year, off the road.)
- Eliminate 2.9 billion barrels of imported oil annually. (Equal to 406,000 Olympic eight-lane competition pools.)
- Restore 25,800 square miles of degraded soils to rich, highly productive cropland. (An amount of land equal to the size of
Links for Organic and Pesticide Free Resources
Organic Consumers Association http://www.organicconsumers.org/
(Protecting organic standards for the consumer)
Pesticide Action Network http://www.panna.org/
(Extensive and interactive site to help you stay informed concerning pressing pesticide issues)
The O'Mama Organic Report http://www.theorganicreport.org/
(A resource for organic living, information and inspiration)
NCAP (Northwest Coalition For Alternatives To Pesticides) http://www.pesticide.org
(A fabulous organization on the frontline in the battle against the use of pesticides)
