Expression GreenExpressing the need for a healthy green lifestyle

To under­stand organic skin care, you have to under­stand organic farm­ing because all of the ingre­di­ents in organic skin care are organ­i­cally pro­duced. This means that each and every ingre­di­ent should be cer­ti­fied as organ­i­cally grown, not just the major­ity of them. 

It is a good idea to check com­pa­nies that you are con­sid­er­ing for your organic skin care prod­ucts to make sure that they are sell­ing cer­ti­fied prod­ucts and that the prod­ucts you pur­chase from them are certified. 

There are com­pa­nies out there which make false claims about being organic and those that sell some non organic prod­ucts along with organic prod­ucts. Through under­stand­ing organic farm­ing, you will see that organic skin care is bet­ter for both you and the environment.

Basi­cally, organic farm­ing is a return to the way farm­ing used to be done, uti­liz­ing a num­ber of things to replen­ish soil nour­ish­ment includ­ing: crop rota­tion, com­post­ing, and cover crops. Cli­mate hardy plants grown in well nour­ished soil have bet­ter insect and dis­ease resis­tance than their non organic coun­ter­parts do. 

Because of this resis­tance, the organic plants do not require fer­til­iz­ers and pes­ti­cides in mas­sive amounts. Even when help is needed, organic farm­ers pro­tect their plants through a vari­ety of ways that still do not uti­lize syn­thetic chem­i­cals. Sadly, this does not mean that there are absolutely no pes­ti­cides in organic plants. 

Because of the over use of pes­ti­cides, even our rain car­ries them, which means that organic plants are sub­jected to them through the rain.

Bio­di­ver­sity is pro­moted by the organic farm­ers way of grow­ing dif­fer­ent crops and nat­ural resource sys­tems (like air and water) are pro­tected because of the way that organic farm­ers store and com­post the ani­mal waste they use in replen­ish­ing soil nutrients. 

The over­all effect on the envi­ron­ment through organic farm­ing can be seen through reduced green­house gases. On a local level, farm­ers see less water used, less soil ero­sion, improved fer­til­ity, safer ground­wa­ter, and more abun­dant wildlife.

Organic is all about the way that var­i­ous agri­cul­tural prod­ucts are grown (or raised) and processed. By farm­ing organ­i­cally, the health of the ecosys­tem is main­tained. Tox­ins in fer­til­iz­ers and pes­ti­cides are bypassed because these prod­ucts are not used in organic farming. 

The focus is on the envi­ron­ment: soil regen­er­a­tion and water con­ser­va­tion being the two biggest issues and ani­mal wel­fare play­ing a large part as well. Dur­ing pro­cess­ing qual­ity is retained because organic foods are not sub­jected to arti­fi­cial ingre­di­ents, irra­di­a­tion, or preservatives.

Aside from man made addi­tives, pes­ti­cides, and fer­til­iz­ers, organic food is also free of man made her­bi­cides and GMOs (genet­i­cally mod­i­fied organ­isms). Ani­mals raised organ­i­cally are not fed by prod­ucts of other ani­mals (rather, they eat organ­i­cally grown foods) and they are free to roam and enjoy their exis­tence (instead of being locked in cages).

In rais­ing ani­mals organ­i­cally, a diet of cer­ti­fied organic food is used; this means that, in addi­tion to the absence of the above men­tioned syn­thet­ics, there are no hor­mones ingested by organ­i­cally raised animals. 

Pre­ven­tion of dis­ease is a by prod­uct of the ani­mals healthy liv­ing, so antibi­otics are also not passed on to us through inges­tion. Through this well nour­ished, free to roam life, it has been found that ani­mals raised for things like milk and eggs tend to live much longer than their non organic counterparts.

Accord­ing to the United States National Organic Stan­dards Board, Organic agri­cul­ture is an eco­log­i­cal pro­duc­tion man­age­ment sys­tem that pro­motes and enhances bio­di­ver­sity, bio­log­i­cal cycles and soil bio­log­i­cal activ­ity. It is based on min­i­mal use of off farm inputs and on man­age­ment prac­tices that restore, main­tain and enhance eco­log­i­cal harmony.

For prod­ucts to be cer­ti­fied organic, they must meet a set of strict stan­dards within the indus­try. These stan­dards are ver­i­fied by a third party agency, some­times the gov­ern­ment. In order to be cer­ti­fied, both farms and pro­cess­ing plants must be checked and found to be in com­pli­ance with the stan­dards that have been set. After ini­tial cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, farms and facil­i­ties are still inspected reg­u­larly to ver­ify that the organic stan­dards are still being met.

Organic does not just refer to the actual plants and ani­mals pro­duced for human con­sump­tion. It applies to any­thing which is man­u­fac­tured in such a way that it meets the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion standards. 

This is why one mois­tur­izer may be organic while another is not, even though both com­pa­nies use the same ingre­di­ents. Organic farm­ing has grown to the extent that you can find a huge vari­ety of food (even processed foods), but it goes even fur­ther than food. You can buy organic cloth­ing, organic bed­ding, linens, and other items.