Establishing Trust in Organic Sources

Article written by Mountain Rose Herbs

   Overseas products have become a much scrutinized subject of late. With all the reported problems with products coming from China, it is quite natural for consumers to be concerned about the products they purchase and bring home to their families. From a consumer standpoint, organic certification lends a magnified process of scrutiny to a product that allows for a greater sense of trust in what you purchase. But not a lot of people outside of the organic industry truly understand the process involved in organic certification, and how that translates into purchasing products.

Those items that carry the familiar green and white USDA organic stamp must be certified by a third party organization that is accredited with the USDA’s National Organics Program (NOP). Whether a product comes from a domestic source or an international one, these organizations must follow strict criteria established by the USDA/NOP, and are inspected annually to ensure that they are producing, handling, processing and packing organic materials within national organic guidelines which have been established.

All accredited certifiers throughout the world must follow the same basic guidelines and standards to further protect the integrity of the organic trail and it is the job of certifying agents to do this. Their inspectors in the field must be experienced and knowledgeable in the organic standards of production and handling of organic products, as well as keeping meticulous records on what they have observed during an annual performance revue of any organic operation. These observations, along with the auditing of organic plans, pest control records, and purchasing records help shape the report that is submitted to the certification body to reflect how well ( or poor ) a certified organic company is doing in keeping to the NOP standards. These criteria are the same whether they are inspecting an organic processing plant in rural Oregon, or an organic farm in mainland China.

 The certification of farms does go a few steps further than that of a processing facility; other factors come into play when the soil is actually turned. To be certified as an organic farm, the land must have been free from substances prohibited by the NOP for a period of three years immediately prior to the harvest of the first organic crop. It also must have a distinct and well defined “buffer zones” to prevent the unintended contamination from adjoining land that may not be under organic management.

In addition, the farm must implement a cultivation process that maintains (or improves) the condition of the soil, manage crop nutrients, and soil fertility through various approved means (crop rotation, etc.) and insure that neither plant nor animal materials can contribute in any way to the contamination of the crops, soil, or water supply. The use of genetically modified seeds is strictly prohibited. The producer must use organic seeds and planting stock, except when an equivalent organically produced variety is not commercially available. Also banned by NOP standards are conventional pesticides, petroleum based fertilizers and any synthetic substance not found on the national list. The use of ionizing radiation and sewage sludge are also prohibited in all facets of organic production and handling.

In addition to organic standards, there are many criterions that Mountain Rose Herbs considers before it will source our products, and this applies to those vendors overseas as well as in the U.S.

We always consider whether workers are given fair wages and fair market value for the goods they produce, even going so far as refusing to carry products that do not meet these standards. We will always source certified organic first, but if it is not available we will choose a variety that is cultivated without chemicals, or wild harvested in a sound and ecological manner.  When we do source materials from wild areas, we have strict protocols that must be adhered to by the collector that is doing the gathering so that they protect the ecology from where the plant came from and do not over harvest the plants from within their bioregion, and an affidavit is signed by each wild harvester we purchase from that documents their compliance and understanding of our standards.

Mountain Rose Herbs makes periodic trips to the numerous organic farms that we have exclusive contacts with to ensure that the quality we require is being produced at the farm and at the processing plant. All of these details may be investigated in greater detail on our quality control page by following the link below.

There are a great many concerns in the ever expanding global marketplace, many of which can be eliminated simply by knowing and being able to trust those who you choose to purchase from. When you choose Mountain Rose Herbs, you can be assured that unrivaled quality is our highest priority, and it has become the very foundation that we stand upon. As a certified organic processor through OTCO (a USDA accredited certifying agency) you can be assured that each and every product we offer with the certified organic seal on it has been inspected, analyzed, monitored and approved as truly organic according to USDA National Organic Program standards is and acceptable for sale as an organic product within the United States.

For more information, visit these links:
Mountain Rose Herbs Quality Control: http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/bulkherb/quality.html
The USDA National Organic Program homepage:  http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm
Oregon Tilth Certified Organic (OTCO):  http://www.tilth.org/