The Organic Scam

Paway-yatanatu way-akt, Medicine Woman Practitioner and Man Found Standing, Medicine Man Practitioner

Modern farming practices clear large acres of forest and include all types of toxic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified plants, and so forth. These harmful conditions are found in our environment and in our health care products too.  Most people believe that purchasing organic means avoiding harmful toxins, sadly this is not the case.

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The organic programs allow approved toxic chemicals to be used on farms and liberties are allowed for other chemicals to be added to essential oils and herbal supplements.

In the United States companies can legally label their essential oils and other health care products as 100% Pure and Organic when they contain up to 97% fillers and harmful chemicals. Consumers think they are getting value and purchasing quality when in fact quite the opposite is true.

The large health food chain supplied organic essential oil brands are not exempt. Our product research and development testing of their oils showed that they routinely contained poor quality, adulterated oils, as well as toxic chemicals.

The USDA organic certification of a product is not without its loop holes.  With very little funding, it is quite legal and simple for any company to have USDA Certifications and USDA Organic labeling on toxic and potentially harmful products. We were informed by a large certification company how to do this.

They told us all that needs to happen is a for a shell corporation to purchase the products direct from a supplier.  That shell company can then invoice a non- certified or toxic product as “organic” to their parent company.  That parent company can then take those invoices to a USDA Certification company and pay the certification fee.  They are then legally able certify that product and allow the company to label their products as Organic.

Anyone wanting to be a part of Natural Healing, should look into the farming and organic certification practices of the country where the plants are farmed.  It is quite easy to see there are many games being played in the industry.  For example, Turkey does not have an organic certification program. Still many companies have their Oregano oil from Turkey as Certified Organic.  If you see a company engaged in the practice of fake certificates, we would advise you to find another supplier.  

If you happen to know what part of the region your plants are being grown, notice how far they are from metropolitian areas or places where there is heavy pollution. If you notice a certified organic farm located near any polluted area, remember that all the ambient pollution in the air and local water sources is entering into those plants naturally even though they are labeled organic.

It may be difficult to know where the exact farms are located due to purchasing agreements being only between suppliers and wholesalers, however, the internet is making this issue more transparent via news articles and social media.  A simple search on the use of bio-solids/sewage sludge on farm land as fertilizer can prove to be very enlightening.  Such fertilization method contains numerous pollutants, hormones, and cancer causing toxins but still fall under the USDA organic certification. With a little bit of research, a consumer can find this information.

Quote: “I have been involved in many upper level meetings for quite a few different essential oils companies.  The company employees/representatives would talk about how their highest quality therapeutic essential oils were the best even though they knew, and I knew, that they were regularly selling low quality and adulterated oils.  The plants grown on their farms were also conventionally grown and distilled for oil volume rather than therapeutic oil quality.” – Pahamy, Natural Practitioner and Medicine Woman

​Quality produced from traditional, non-toxic farming practices far exceeds the government issued paper organic program.  It is always wise to purchase herbal supplements or essential oils, from a supplier that is concerned about true quality and how the plants are grown.  We have found over the years that small farmers have a tendency to take better care for the soil and plants and we feel it is because they are more dependent upon the earth to provide a living.

​Testing claims and Quality Certifications are also another problem instigated by the essential oil companies.  The last decade has brought about many changes with “experts” pushing to bring in accountability and quality standards.  Now on the surface this sounds like a very good thing, but in reality they are just adding another layer of information to sort through and still enable them to ultimately selling low quality, potentially harmful products for top dollar.

Example:  Most all USA peppermint is distilled quickly to maximize the oil volume and profits for the company.  They further increase their profit margins by mixing the USA peppermint with lower cost peppermint from Asia until a “proper chemistry” is reached according to their certification standards.  By having their adulterated poor quality oil certified, the seller then creates a greater profit margin by charging a higher price for their “All Natural 100% Pure Therapeutic Essential Oils”.

The experts are well versed in adding synthetic or natural additives to their therapeutic essential oils from years of experience adding synthetics to perfume grade oils.  It is quite easy to discover some unnatural adulterants like propylene-glycol, however it is next to impossible to find other natural plant based adulterations.

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The industry has advanced to using already natural-occurring chemicals and are mixing those into their essential oils.  Some essential oil companies fully justify and think it is an approved practice to compound two or more essential oils from different, distillations, farms, or even countries.

Example: By taking two lavender oils that would not pass the experts therapeutic certification protocols, they can produce a mixed oil that meets all their certifications.  Some companies take a poor quality Asian lavender and combined it with an extremely, abnormally high quality lavender from a European country.  The results of the mixture can then conform to all their Therapeutic Essential Oil certifications and sell for top dollar.

Quote: “Many years ago I wanted to find out more about how the large distilling companies worked.  I contacted one company that distilled many thousands of tons of organic essential oils each year.  They explained to me their farming practices and distilling operations.  I quickly found their organic essential oils were being produced by the government regulations and they used “approved” toxic chemicals on their herbs.  They even made great claims about the large chemistry lab that was attached to the facility and how it did all testing on their oils to ensure quality.

I told them we were only looking for the highest quality most medicinal oils, and they had to be absolutely pure and free from toxins and additions.  The company’s response to this was, ‘Our lab is wonderful.  Send us the specifications you would like in the oils and we will make them for you.  They will pass any certifications as pure.” – Man Found Standing, Natural Practitioner and Medicine Man

​Too many of the so called independent laboratories are far too close to their customers.  Some essential oils testing labs are getting to well paid for their testing of the oils.  Because of this, we have seen independent testers overlook issues with an essential oil and still endorse that oil.  We have also seen them specifically endorse a company’s essential oils when they know full well that the company is selling oils that have been adulterated.

Quote: “I was given an opportunity to provide a price quote to a company that wanted forty-four pounds of high quality rose oil.  Due to the high cost of rose, I actually provided two quotes with all the testing, organic certificates, and samples. One quote was for my highest quality Therapeutic Rose Oil that came from a private distiller and the other was for what I called standard Therapeutic Rose Oil from the  government-run distiller.

A couple of weeks later I did a follow-up visit and found out that the company purchased their rose oil from one of the world leading ‘experts’.  When I inquired as to why I did not get the sale, I was told that the expert gave them a better price on the ‘world’s best quality rose oil’.

This quite surprised me, because I know what the ‘world’s best quality rose oil’ actually costs and I did not think that anyone could undercut my pricing.  I asked to smell their newly purchased oil, and when I took a whiff of the expert’s oil, I could easily tell that the so called expert did not supply them with the best quality, but with the standard Therapeutic Rose Oil.

I then had the person I was working with smell the oil they just purchased and then smell the two samples I provided. They quickly determined that indeed, the oil the expert supplied smelled like the standard quality oil I had quoted for them. It was after they compared the chemical analysis that all their suspicions were absolutely confirmed.  Sadly, because this company went with the ‘expert’s’ assurances about his quality being the world’s best, they lost over $10,000.00 by purchasing the hyped up oil.” – Man Found Standing, Natural Practitioner and Medicine Man.

Quote: “When working with a new company that wanted to ‘take over the Therapeutic Essential Oils industry’, I provided two lavender samples along with the proper GC/MS testing and certificates.  One lavender sample was from a private certified organic farm in Bulgaria and the other was from a small private farm in France that grew the lavender organically but did not have a certificate on the farm. Both lavenders were Therapeutic Essential Oils but the certified organic lavender was slightly higher in quality and cost about twenty percent more.

Because of the cost, the company went with saving some money and just purchased one hundred and ten pounds of the less expensive oil. When viewing their website a month later, I found the company was bragging about how they had purchased the absolute best lavender in the world and provided the edited (contact information blacked out) certificates and testing for their customers to view.

This company, which claimed to be honest and consciousness about the quality of their products for their customers, was using the information from the Bulgarian Lavender that I gave them to assist them in selling the less expensive lower quality French Lavender to their customers.” – Man Found Standing, Natural Practitioner and Medicine Man

Quote: “A decade ago, I worked with a gentleman who distilled the finest Jasmine oil in the world.  Because of his limited supply, he stopped selling to new customers just to focus on the ones he already had.  One particular year, his harvest was reduced considerably so he told all his current customers that he would only allow one kilogram of oil to be sold per customer.

A couple of months later, I was reviewing our competition’s marketing information and was quite shocked to see them bragging about the one hundred kilograms of the world’s finest Jasmine oil they had purchased.  When we contacted them, they sent us the biochemical testing that showed the oil to be exactly the same as what I had just purchased.

Understandably, I was quite upset with our supplier because I thought he was allowing our competition to gain an advantage by purchasing more oil.  The supplier was contacted and told how upset I was for just being allowed to purchase one kilogram of oil when he sold one hundred kilograms of oil to our competition.

The supplier just laughed and said, “No, I only sold them one kilo.  What they do with their oil when they get it is their business.”

​After reviewing their Jasmine, it was discovered that they indeed took one kilogram of pure Jasmine oil and turned it into one hundred kilograms of something else. Again, just like numerous other experts and companies that have all the right testing, certifications, and claims to purity, they failed the quality and adulteration test.” – Man Found Standing, Natural Practitioner and Medicine Man

​It is always good for companies to have certificates and biochemical testing on the essential oils to make sure there are no toxic chemicals or adulterants.  However, we think any customer should be aware of the marketing claims and outright scams that are truly going on in the unregulated testing of this industry.
We choose oils from the Siahus company because of their resolve to deal with farms that they trust.  As people experience their oils, we are confidence that they will see their quality and therapeutic properties far outshine the competition.  

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