Australian Organic Skincare
Posted - November 1, 2008
Jasmin Skincare: Facing the challenge of organic beauty
By Adriana Michael - as printed in O.W.N. Fall 2008
Imagine a laboratory at the top of a mountain, surrounded by virgin forests, and supplied directly with medicinal herbs, extracts, and essential oils from its own organic biodynamic farm. Such a mountain is called Mt. Tamborine in the beautiful Gold Coast hinterland of Australia, where Jasmin Skincare has developed its 100% organic certified line of skincare and cosmetics.
Founded in 2002 by Lihua Song and Gordon Chalmers, the driving force behind Jasmin Skincare has been the desire to offer people a natural and alternative range in an industry dominated by multi-nationals peddling synthetics. The company’s entire operation is vertically integrated, ensuring complete control of production, from farming of the active ingredients all the way to the end product delivered to the consumer.
Conventional wisdom in the beauty industry claims that the inclusion of a few ingredients are as far as organic cosmetics can go. They point to the sometimes poor performance of natural shampoos and deodorants as an indicator that truly natural beauty products will never sell as well as their synthetic counterparts. Fortunately, dynamic firms like Jasmin Skincare are proving those naysayers wrong.
It took this company three long years of research and development, and an investment of around eight million US dollars but, in the end, Jasmin Skincare launched its own organic line. A claim not easy to make, as water is the main ingredient in most cosmetics and water can not be certified as organic.
With Jasmine Skincare, Song and Chalmers replaced the traditional water phase with ingredients such as shea butter, aloe vera gel and beneficial plant extract.” If we use water in any product it is in the form of certified organic rosewater and limited below 10% of the total formulation”, says Chalmers. The only exception to this are the five floral hydrosol mist sprays (rose, jasmin, neroli, chamomile and lavender). The lipsticks are only produced under the category of “cosmetics”, which as such contain no water.
With the boom of the green movement, it’s all too common to see cosmetics touted as all-natural when they’re anything but natural. Some brands may even have some organic certified ingredients. However, a careful look at the labels may reveal that the formula hides the usual cocktail of toxic chemicals.
Preservatives, in particular, are often not natural, may be petroleum derived, such as parabens, known to be harmful.
Finding organic solutions that would offer the same performance as traditional cosmetics has not been easy, but Song and Chalmers are dedicated enough to their ideals to practice what they preach. The company has paid great attention to emulsification issues, preservation and efficacy of the final product. One of their best finds has been a natural citrus based preservative by UK firm Citrox Ltd. “Using proprietary ingredients such as (those from) Citrox with a range of essential oils and extracts that have known anti-microbial functions allows us to increase shelf life to near comparable levels with our ‘chemical swill’ brethren.”, says Chalmers. Testing these mixes with various blends of our own, we are getting results that far outperform even the traditional parabens”.
Many cosmetics and skincare preparations have a pH problem, not with the formulation Jasmin got from Citrox. “A secondary benefit from using the Citrox natural formula is that it pulls the pH level down to levels that match normal skin, thus making the products easier to work with”, adds Chalmers. The results have been far better than Song and Chalmers expected. “We are launching our new Migaloo mid-priced certified organic range, with Citrox as the base preservative.”
Jasmin has proved it is possible to develop 100% natural cosmetics with organic certified ingredients that perform well. The line of over 100 products is selling at selected spas and salons in Australia , China, Hong Kong and other Asian countries. Jasmin follows the Soil Association standards and has Australian OFC certification. According to Chalmers Jasmin is among the first, certified organic companies to ever pass the strict Chinese Ministry of Hygiene and CIQ import certification.
Over the past three years Song and Chalmers have developed a “show and tell” farm and manufacturing facility. Last year they hosted over 7,000 visitors. “We have given everyone a ‘first hand’ experience of both fresh organic produce and understanding how it is possible to manufacture skincare and cosmetics in an environmentally friendly way”, says Chalmers.
But the project does not end there. This year the firm undertook USDA certification and, once finalised, it plans to certify for the new EU organic standards.
The next stage is to move totally to wind and solar power generation, pay attention to a new concept of Jasmin’s themed stores and to focus on Europe, North America and the Middle East. A busy agenda ahead for an energetic duo and a lab sitting on top of a dream mountain.
Colombian Organic Firm
Posted - November 1, 2008
Daabon Sets Mood for a Greener Colombia
By Adriana Michael - as printed in O.W.N. Fall 2008
Daabon Organic, a third generation family-owned business in Colombia, is run by Alberto Davila Diazgranados, affectionately known to all as Don Alberto. He has turned a family farm founded by his father in 1914 into a progressive international enterprise, a pioneer in sustainable agriculture and a leading grower and exporter of organic bananas, palm oil, cacao and coffee. Don Alberto is an easy to approach man who enjoys the company of others. He certainly meets many people, running a company that employs over 1500 people and deals with over 400 contractors.
Keeping a business alive for almost 100 years is a challenging task.What has been the formula to its success? “Being fair with yourself and others, listening, setting clear rules for all family and co-workers, and finding the best people who share your vision and will be involved to reach the goals,” he says. Don Alberto learned from his father’s experiences as a banana exporter and plans on keeping the management of the business where it started: in the family. His five children are all employed by Daabon Organic, and a structure is in place to welcome the 4th generation into the company as well.
“They all can join but need to show genuine interest in what we do, study abroad, work first for another company.Everyone is free to stay or to sell and leave”, he says. “So far everyone is still in…and with clear responsibilities and area of work, like in any other company”.
How has Don Alberto been able to transform such a large business into a completely organic enterprise? Throughout the seventies and eighties Daabon introduced conventional farming of African palm, cotton and rice crops. Soon they were aware of the incredible amount of pesticides the rice and cotton crops required. “We were stuck in a vicious cycle spending lots of money in infrastructure to spray the fields up to 28 times per year!”. The bugs got resistant and more inputs were needed. His son Manuel, raised the concept of organic farming. There was a market, particularly in France. Daabon converted the farms in 1993. “In the tropics you really need to be careful of what you do. We do not have seasons, but a rich biodiversity to protect.”
Another key to their success was to convince small land owners from the surrounding communities to become organic, and to show them a way of thinking and a lifestyle that went beyond conventional farming methods. They worked patiently with their local partners at all levels to show them why organic was the best way to go.
To that end, Daabon has created farming co-operatives, in collaboration with the government, to ensure the farmers receive technical assistance and financial support. Don Alberto describes one of his most rewarding experiences - he and his wife co-signed bank loans on 188 small farms, to allow the farmers to borrow capital to purchase seeds and start their own organic palm tree plantations. The effort has brought a 94% success rate, as most farmers understood the benefits of the concept.
Don Alberto and his team are in the process of converting Daabon Organic into a carbon-negative enterprise. He realizes that it will be a lengthy process, but one that will offer customers a new standard in conservation.
Labels, Tests and Education
Posted - November 1, 2008
Dangers of Playing Hide and Seek with Product Labels
O.W.N. News Network – as printed in O.W.N. Fall 2008
In her new book Holler for Your Health: Be the Key to a Healthy Family, author Theresa Holler addresses three problems that haunt the food and household product market: poor labelling, lack of proper testing and lack of education. Frequently, labels omit toxins, and the consumer receives scant information about them. Other products containing toxins can go onto the shelf without proper testing, turning consumers into guinea pigs.
This well referenced text grounded in science, offers tips on simple ways consumers may protect their family’s health from deadly commonplace toxins.
Holler warns against products with hidden chemicals, which can harm children and adults, and lead to sickness, fatigue and obesity. But because of lax labelling regulations and trade secrets, the uninformed consumer cannot choose between good products and toxic ones.
Holler has a Bachelors degree in Biology, holds a Masters Degree in Primary Care Medicine and has completed Doctoral coursework in Medical Writing and Environmental Health. She is director of education for Project Wellness in Roanoke, VA and a public speaker. Holler for Your Health is available online at Amazon and from her website www.holler4health.com.
A portion of proceeds are donated to children who are dying alone in US hospitals.
Organic Cosmetics Standards
Posted - July 15, 2008
Varied Requirements, Little Regulation Bring US Lawsuit
Organic-branded cosmetics and personal care products are coming under legal question in the US. A lawsuit was recently launched by soap and cosmetics firm Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps.
The firm filed a claim that says the many organic labels and messages on personal care products that do not meet the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) standard are overly confusing to consumers.
Dr. Bronner’s makes various products that meet those strict standards. Its own packaging shows the green USDA organic seal.
Mislabelling through generic, non-NOP “organic” claims is “creating all kinds of organic noise,” said company President David Bronner. What “organic” means is unclear to consumers, he said: “In the personal care aisle, chances are it does not correspond at all to your basic expectation of what an organic label should be.”
Bronner’s filed the suit in California under a state law that considers what a “reasonable consumer” would expect a product claim to mean.
Petrochemical ingredients can slip into personal care because companies claim products are “organic” without certification. Little regulation exists. These firms place the word “organic” as large as they like on packaging. Certified firms must follow their standard’s packaging guidelines.
For now, the NOP is a reference point for companies wanting to do organic cosmetics “right”. Bronner’s and US natal-care products firm Earth Mama Angel Baby are two companies currently producing personal care products to that standard.
“There’s a huge controversy about the standards by which organic personal care products should be certified,” said Earth Mama founder Melinda Olson.
The NOP standard is meant for food, and thus bars some common personal care ingredients and processes that most manufacturers agree are safe.
“Asking personal care products to be certified to the NOP standard is like putting them against the wrong yardstick,” said Olson. Still, she said, Earth Mama will be following the NOP standard until a better one is developed.
Such development has been going on for years under NSF International. Bronner and Olson have both participated in the NSF process. Many insiders expect it to lead to a NOP personal care standard.
“It’s more or less done. The standard should be out the door later in the year,” Bronner said.
However, the OASIS standard recently announced by several firms (see story in OWN Summer 2008 print edition) raised alarm bells for Bronner. “OASIS is basically a breakaway from the NSF effort,” he said. Fearing this could create “organic” standards that allow ingredients and processes that Bronner feels should be barred, his firm eventually sued companies it felt were relevant.
Even firms named in the Bronner lawsuit are launching NOP products, suggesting demand for this category is growing. US Nature’s Gate launched a NOP Rainwater Lotions line late this Spring, with the 95% organic ingredient levels NOP requires.
“The line was developed for our customers who are increasingly seeking personal care products that mirror their commitment to organic agriculture and sustainable living,” said the firm’s Laura Setzfand.
The company “strongly supports the need for standards governing the use of the terms organic and natural,” she added. “We are currently evaluating the proposed standards.”
Brazilian Cosmetics
Posted - May 1, 2008
Beyond Raw Ingredients
By Adriana Michael - as printed in O.W.N. Summer 2008
The bounty of Brazil’s rainforests provides many healing ingredients for everything from functional foods to jewellery. In the past, indigenous peoples have been often left out of related success stories. Raw ingredients are shipped off with no added value for the local economy.
Now the growing market for eco-friendly goods stimulates sustainable ways to preserve the forests and knowledge native experts have used for generations.
Brazilian cosmetics firms Florestas Organic Botanical, Surya Nature Inc., Reserva Folio and newcomer Maté Therapy chose to break the mould by processing in Brazil. Florestas capitalizes on local Brazilian expertise, says founder and managing director Fernando Lima. Working with Brazilian labs to test its naturally rich plant ingredients, the company offers fair prices to local producers and processes in Brazil.
“Florestas realizes advantages over large, foreign firms through its low-cost structure, production flexibility and access to exotic and effective organic certified products,” says Lima. “By eliminating the middleman with direct purchasing, Florestas cuts cost and pays higher prices to local families.” Besides Brazil, its Ikove-brand line is now in major US retailer Whole Foods, as well as in Japan.
Capitalizing on the richness and beauty secrets of India and Brazil is Surya Nature. Founder Clelia C. Angelon, an animal-rights and environmental activist, sources from both countries to produce her beauty products, exported to 20 countries, fifty percent of total sales.
Amazonia Preciosa, Surya’s certified organic personal care line, features the scent of the preciosa tree which grows only in the Amazonas. “This kind of smell, you can’t copy in the lab,” Angelon says.
“In Amazonas, people know the plants, but they don’t know how to classify them scientifically,” she adds. Surya funds a school to help locals formalise their knowledge of useful plants and a cooperative that creates jobs for the graduates.
A delicate collection of handmade jewellery made from Amazonas golden grass will soon be added to Surya’s offerings, a move to preserve more of the region’s forests. This grass grows only in the southern Amazonas. Nowadays, many locals burn these forested fields to raise cattle. “We are showing them that they can make more money by preserving and working with the golden grass than by raising cattle and destroying the environment,” Angelon says.
Founded in 2003, Reserva Folio also makes optimum use of Brazil’s environmentally-sound resources. Founder and managing director Simone Valladares embarked on the challenging mission to develop her Apicultural, Aromatherapy and Amazonic organic and natural personal care lines. “It is very difficult to develop new formulations and ensure the peformance consumers are used to from conventional brands”, says Valladares. Reserva Folio offers soaps with a strong natural fragance, making one think of sweeet rainforest airs. Brazilian crops featured include andiroba oil, cupuacu butter and Brazil nut.
The youngest Brazilian natural cosmetics firm made its debut at Expo West this Spring: Maté Therapy has an attractive line of toiletries in deep blue containers. Yerba maté is the key ingredient in the young firm’s products, so far body lotion, antiseptic soap and room spray.
The firm sources and processes in Brazil and has already found interested US distribution partners. “Working with local maté producers and then a local factory is not too difficult”, says company President Denise Vieira de Souza. Yet few firms opt to process locally due to the additional investment needed, she adds. In organics, strict manufacturing regulations must be followed - an effort that can cost a lot of money. “Most firms prefer only to export the ingredients,” she says.
Still, if native crops are harvested sustainably and in partnership with local growers, any way to share the Amazonas bounty deserves support. Brazilian Forest Natural Products sells high quality Brazilian produce and herbs in freeze-dried, extracted and tinctured forms, mainly to Asia, with Europe and the US as near-future markets.
“Brazil has a lot to offer”, says the firm’s international operations manager Reindert Dekker. “The quality and, in particular, the variety of natural products present in Brazil is amazing”.
According to Dekker, “the most exciting part is working with products that are completely unknown now, but, that in two years time may be on every breakfast table or in a new top perfume,” he adds. That’s a familiar feeling for the many firms now working for sustainability with Brazil’s natural bounty.
Yacon
Posted - May 1, 2008
Yacon: Natural Sugar Control
By Adriana Michael - as printed in O.W.N. Summer 2008
A South American tuber grown in the Andes could offer valuable sugar control and immune system bonuses to the human body. The yacon, called an apple or pear of the earth for its sweet, crispy taste when washed and eaten fresh, grows between 1,500 and 2,500 metres above sea level. The Andean peoples have long used the root to ease health problems like liver ailments, says Dr. Cass Ingram, a natural health expert who has written a dozen books touching on functional foods such as yacon.
“South American traditional medicines have never been written about in common books. There’s been a lack of quality articles describing their ethnic use and the medicinal properties,” says Ingram, explaining yacon’s low profile. “No one has published about what the properties are.”
Yacon contains a high percentage of inulin, a fructo-oligo-saccharide or FOS. The body does not convert this class of sweet-tasting chemicals into energy, and so they rank a zero on the glycemic index scale. “This is the perfect functional food for resting the pancreas,” says Ingram.
Inulin mimicks better-known insulin, Ingram says, producing all kinds of health benefits. “Insulin has everything to do with how we digest our sugars and starches,” he says.
Good bacteria in the gut feed off the inulin, Ingram says. Yacon functions both as sugar control and as pro-biotic, thus boosting the immune system.
Caution is required to ensure a marketable product retains the benefits of the pure root. “We knew if we could keep it unprocessed, then it would be medicinal,” Ingram says of his early work with yacon.
Organic products derived from yacon are gradually becoming available in North America. Careful methods are required to ensure desirable inulin is obtained while unwanted fructose sugar, which occurs only in the root’s fibrous parts, is not. “If you don’t treat the product properly, what’s going to happen is that you will obtain only fructose sugar, which is not good,” says Jorge Urena, president and CEO of Uhtco Corporation. Uhtco is a well known supplier of organic yacon products, and the main importer to Canada.
Ingram worked with Urena and Uhtco’s partners in Peru to get organic yacon in its highest potency. “We asked him to make extracts that were unprocessed. No alcohol. No heat,” Ingram says. Working with small farmers in Peru and having built a Peruvian processing facility to house the required machines, Uhtco’s processing plant introduced yacon syrups and the line is expanding.
Yacon has a citrus, light caramel flavour, Ingram says. Urena prefers to use the syrups as a sweetener, while Ingram pours his over yogurt or other dairy products. “It’s more interesting for its aroma,” Ingram says, and its health properties.Whatever the impetus, many people today have far too much sugar in their diet and could certainly benefit from the natural, healthy powers of this exotic and not widely known “apple of the earth”.
OASIS
Posted - May 1, 2008
OASIS: New US Cosmetics Standard
By Adrian Larose - as printed in O.W.N. Summer 2008
A new industry-based organic cosmetics standard is attracting attention, and criticism, with respect to the question of how to define what qualifies as an “organic” personal care product.
The clear, legislated organic standards that exist for food are rarely used to certify personal care products (including cosmetics). According to some in the organic industry, the food standards are inappropriate for such use.
The draft OASIS (Organic and Sustainable Industry Standards) private cosmetics standard for US personal care products is already backed by about 35 firms, including large conventional companies such as L’Oreal and many small American organics firms. The draft standard is available for comment on-line at www.oasisseal.org until June.
A phase-in period beginning with an 85% organic requirement - counting water, a major ingredient in most cosmetics - to end at 95% just 4 years later is part of the draft, with restrictions on allowed ingredients in the remaining 5%. That has some groups insisting OASIS present itself as a “made-with organic” standard, not simply “organic”.
“We want a tougher list of allowed ingredients,” says Ronnie Cummins, co-founder and national director with the grassroots US Organic Consumers Association. “Certain preservatives and hydrogenated and sulphonated cleansers the draft allows are of concern “, he says.
But some chemicals are obviously necessary in cosmetics, counters OASIS. “You have to use chemistry,” says group chairperson Gay Timmons, with American ingredients firm Oh, Oh Organic. “We felt that the only way you could really do that was to identify those chemical processes and those chemicals that are environmentally responsible.” The OASIS standard follows US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines on green chemical processes, notes Timmons.
The phase-in addresses hard-to-find organic ingredients such as surfactants. The group hopes OASIS participant purchases will support and increase organic production of these, allowing products to reach higher organic percentages over time.
The Organic Consumers Association insists the US National Organic Program food standards can be applied to personal care products. About a dozen companies currently have NOP certified organic personal care products, Cummins noted . Timmons advises that the number includes a few OASIS members , but the particularities of the NOP regulations do not work for all personal care categories.
A cease and desist letter has been sent to OASIS by the consumers association, asking the group not to make organic claims until its plans satisfy certain criteria. According to Timmons, such demands only undermine the standards-creation consensus process - she noted that the NOP food standard only developed after many diverse private standards were created.
“To suggest, or to demand as has occurred in this cease and desist letter, that this is something we shouldn’t do, I think it undermines the very process that has given us a fantastic law in the case of the NOP,” she says. “The federal government’s not going to regulate something so controversial that people are constantly screaming at each other.”
OASIS members are also participating in an on-going national process aimed at creating a USDA-regulated standard Timmons says, and in the meantime, OASIS makes sense. “How are you going to get 360 million people to agree? It takes a while.”
Suframa
Posted - May 1, 2008
Amazon: A Source for Sustainable Business
OWN asked Gustavo Igrejas of Brazilian federal agency SUFRAMA to share with our readers how his organization helps preserve the Amazones. Below is SUFRAMA’s response. As printed in O.W.N. Summer 2008.
The Superintendence of the Manaus Free Trade Zone (SUFRAMA) is counting on the Amazon’s biodiversity as sustainable resource.
SUFRAMA is a federal agency linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. It is in charge of managing the Manaus Free Trade Zone that covers the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia and Roraima and the towns of Macapá and Santana in the state of Amapá.
SUFRAMA supports development initiatives that add value to regional products and enable introduction to the organic market. Amazonas, the biggest state in Brazil at about 1.8 million square meters, has a natural inclination to this sector.
Brazil Nuts
One of the Amazonas products that stands out in the national and international organic markets is the Brazil nut. 
SUFRAMA supports projects in the towns of Amaturá and Manicoré. With SUFRAMA’s support, this project improved infrastructure and trained qualified fruit collectors, focusing mainly on harvesting practices. This has enabled processing in the towns, adding value by producing polished skin dehydrated Brazil nuts.
This project has already become a reference in that state and other parts of the country, and is quickly moving towards certified organic status. The cooperative’s members are working hard to grant the final consumer high quality, healthy products
Açaí
Another initiative is the Local Productive Arrangement of açaí in the town of Codajás. To develop açai’s potential and consolidate the production chain, SUFRAMA financed a study that proved local industrial production of açai pulp would be feasible. The agency then invested R$ 1.25 million (around US $740,000) in construction, finished in 2004. Producers benefited from technical assistance, training and consulting services, and a new ferry.
Since 2004, more than 200 producer families have benefited, leading to the creation of the Codajás Mixed Cooperative of Açaí and Regional Fruit Producers with more than 100 member workers.
The increasing number of businesses like this supported by SUFRAMA, as well as the activity of the Manaus Industrial Pole (PIM), provide a viable alternative for the people in the region. Instead of choosing damaging mining, they have the option to work at companies that contribute to the sustainable development of the region, allowing Amazonas to preserve 98% of its forests.
The renewal of the government’s interior development policy by the federal agency this year must open space for new initiatives focused on the orderly, best use of this region’s potential. In 2007, R$ 192.2 million ( around US$ 114 million ) was allocated to such projects, one of the largest amounts ever invested at once in this jurisdiction. SUFRAMA and the Amazonas aim to renew that success in 2008.
Shea
Posted - May 1, 2008
Shea Butter Organic Gem for Africa
By Henria Stephens - as printed in O.W.N. Summer 2008
Shea butter is booming. Better known as the tree of life or Karite, it is a unique tree that is changing the lives of smallholder farmers across Africa. What was once solely a product for local consumption now has a growing niche in the international organic cosmetic and sweets market, and helps to rehabilitate war-torn communities and empower rural women.
Scientifically classified as Vitellaria paradoxa, the shea tree is slow growing and fire resistant. It is found in over 16 countries across the dry savannah woodland belt of Africa. An estimated 5 million rural households across Africa depend on the nutritional and economic resources of the Shea butter tree.
What makes shea butter an organic gem is the tree itself.
Situated in woodlands and forest, the shea tree is often far removed from the fertilizers and pesticides that can compromise organic integrity. One of the greatest challenges facing producers is not the cultivation, but the processing, where producers are forced to refine Shea naturally - without solvents or synthetic chemicals. Several certifiers, including Ceres, IMO Switzerland and EcoCert, have standards for the certification of shea butter and shea nuts.
Shea trees only begin to produce fruit after 20 years, and only at 45 years does shea reach full production. This continues for more than 200 years after maturation.
The butter is derived from the shea nut, which is dried, stored and processed. The nut extract is used as food oil and in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and confectionaries. It can be used as a cocoa butter substitute.
KFP Uganda Managing Director Klaus Fehling , who works with East African shea trees mainly in Uganda and Sudan, explains the difference between East and West African shea butter : “Their (West African) butter is different in composition apparently because of a genetic watershed between East and West. East African shea butter has a higher oleic content and is softer,” he says. “It is suitable for cosmetics. Organic certification has helped (me) to introduce the product into the market. It will help to protect the Shea tree as a resource for the organic cosmetics industry.”
Processing the nut requires pulp removal after fermentation or boiling, oven- or sun-drying, and shelling. The nuts are then crushed, toasted, and finely ground. The mixture obtained is churned and strained until a white, buttery paste forms. Most of the work is done by women.
Female shea butter producers can now control their own income and better support their families. According to Mr. Fehling, “the shea trade is a unique opportunity to add substantial household income for the people of one of the poorest regions in Uganda. Women earning revenue from the sale of shea nuts afford to pay medical bills and school fees for their children.”
“The project provides additional services, including sensitization on tree conservation, provision of shea and fruit tree seedlings, best practices in organic farming and health awareness,” he adds.
In parts of war-ravaged Northern Uganda, the shea tree has been a rare resource for farmers returning to villages after displacement during continuing civil strife between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government. Over 5,000 households now benefit from new producer cooperatives headed by rural women.
The popularity of shea butter is due in part to its high vitamin A and E content, amongst its other healing properties.
Some organic shea producers include; the Union des groupements de productrices de produits de karité de la Sissili et du Ziro (UGPPK/S-Z) of Burkina Faso; the Northern Uganda Shea Processors Association (NUSPA); Chambre d’Agriculture du Bénin; Projet de Promotion des Micro-Entreprises Rurales (PROMER) in Senegal; and Ideal Providence Farms of Ghana. Other producer countries include Bénin, Nigeria, Sudan, Mali, and Niger to name a few.
More than just a skin lotion, organic shea butter is used in body salves, soaps, hair care products, and sunscreen, as well as an anti wrinkling agent. Especially important to producers, demand is increasing. As organic shea butter’s popularity grows, so too will the livelihoods of those who produce it.
Waiting for Stevia
Posted - May 1, 2008
Bitter-Sweet Wait for Stevia:
Despite encouraging tests, awaits EU, US approval
By Dallas Terry - as printed in O.W.N. Summer 2008
A bitter debate surrounds stevia. A natural sweetener hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, stevia has been used by South American Indians for centuries. Stevia products have sold well in Asia in recent decades. But despite ages of problem-free usage, in the early 1990s, stevia suffered a blow: the US Food and Drug administration forbid its sale.
Who killed the natural sweetener? The sugar and synthetic sweeteners industries, says Prof. Dr. Jan M.C. Geuns, a founder of the European Stevia Association (EUSTAS) and head of the laboratory of functional biology at the University of Leuven, Belgium. And while stevia is widely used as a sweetener in Japan and other Asian countries, the United States banned its sale unless it is labeled as a supplement. Stevia is available in Canada as a dietary supplement, not as a food additive, and in the EU the EC Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) has rejected applications to market the plant and its products as sweeteners and as novel foods within the Union. According to the UK’s Foods Standard Agency website, there was no satisfactory data to support the safe use of these products as ingredients in food or as sucrose substitutes.
Stevia and stevioside are safe when used as a sweetener, says Prof. Geuns. The product is suited for both diabetics as well as for obese persons intending to lose weight by avoiding sugar, and no allergic reactions to it seem to exist. Scientists in Geuns’ university lab have conducted stevia tests in animals and some human trials over the past decade. The tests on such small rodents as rats, mice and hamsters came out completely favorable in 1997: stevia-fed animals displayed perfectly normal health, with blood and urine tests to back up the conclusion. The animals showed no strange behavior, birth defects or slow growth.
But in 1999, another group of researchers not connected with the university, testing stevia on rats, showed the sweetener as dangerous. Foul, cried Geuns: The amount of stevia given to the rats equalled about 35 kg (77 lbs) a day for a typical human. “This is more than 50% of the body weight of a person weighing 65 kg (143 lbs),” said Geuns. “Such data should be seriously questioned”.
In a 2004 test in Leuven, two groups of human volunteers were given stevia regularly. Ten volunteers at the lab in Leuven took stevia for three days; nine volunteers at a laboratory in Milan took stevia for five days. In both studies, urine, feces and blood were tested. The conclusion: the stevioside - the refined portion of stevia used as a sweetener - was safe to eat in regular doses, even for diabetics.
Indeed, stevia may even have a curative effect. In a 2003 study, hypertensive patients took stevia for three months. The results suggested that regular stevia intake lowered blood pressure significantly.
Geuns said that his group of scientists is doing more stevia experiments in biosynthesis of stevioside, pharmacological effects, development of methods for environmentally sound extraction of the sweeteners, and development of methods for analysis of steviol glycosides (a breakdown product of stevia).
“We’ve also written two new applications in 2007 to get approval for stevia and steviol glycosides.” One application went to the EU Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) directed at promoting research related to stevia. The other went to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to gain approval of stevia as a food additive.
Meanwhile, bigger players may soon enter the arena. Multinational corporations Cargill and The Coca-Cola Company have teamed up to develop a processed form of stevia called Rebiana. Cargill claims that, unlike most stevia now available, Rebiana will not have a lingering aftertaste. GLG Life Tech Corporation, controlling 80% of stevia leaf production in China, has signed a 5-year renewable agreement with Cargill to provide stevia powder to make Rebiana.
According to Cargill, once approved, Rebiana will first be sold in those countries where stevia has already been accepted for a long time. Meanwhile, most consumers in North America and Europe will have a bitter wait until their food authorities decide whether stevia is fit for human consumption.
