Over the last six years six of the best national certification bodies have been working on creating a European standard for organic and natural beauty products. The UK's Soil Association, Germany's BDIH, France's COSMEBIO and ECOCERT, Belgium's BIOFORUM and Italy's ICEA make up the European Cosmetics Standard Working Group. They collectively certify over 10,000 products. They've joined forces to help us distinguish between the flimsy marketing claims and the authentic truths of brands that make and sell products in the EU.

Unlike the Soil Association seal of approval products certified by Cosmos will not have to have a minimum organic ingredients. Products certified natural by Cosmos will not be able to contain parabens, phthalates, GM ingredients, and most petrochemical-based ingredients. They will have to use cleaner methods that minimise waste and create fewer by-products. It is not as strict as the Soil Associations organic standard but it is a start and is focused on the beauty and health care industry.

‘What we hope is that as things progress, the "natural" certification should serve as a stepping-stone to companies becoming certified as organic. Any sensible cosmetic company is looking at natural and organic cosmetics now - if they aren't they are getting behind the times,' said Francis Blake, director of Soil Association standards to the Ecologist recently.

The good thing about Cosmos is that it presents a unified EU body that looks specifically at natural skin care products. As more people begin to recognise and understand its significance, they will be able to make a more educated choice between fake natural products and truly natural products.

Look for beauty and health products with the seal of approval - from lipstick to cleansers to homeopathic remedies and essential oils.

For more information about the Cosmos standard click here.

An article in the Independent caught my eye this week. It challenged the food mile philosophy of that which is transported over distance is more damaging to the environment than more locally grown varieties.

Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has released findings on research into the food mile philosophy to test if measuring on transport alone is a fair indication of ecological impact or whether we should be focusing more on the amount of energy used to produce them. A fair point to consider; many UK consumers now are savvy enough (or at least we thought) to choose a Kentish apple over a Brazilian one.

But this new report highlights a few hard to avoid facts. In energy use and carbon emissions British grown strawberries and tomatoes fare worse than Spanish grown varieties which utilise the country's constant sunlight to ripen. Lamb from New Zealand is more sustainable than British lamb because the kiwis use less feed supplements and don't need to heat farm buildings. A few fruit and veg we came out on tops with were Israeli potatoes and New Zealand apples.

Jeanette Longfield, co-ordinator of the food and farming pressure group Sustain, told the Independent: ‘My worry is that people will throw the baby out with the bathwater, and say we thought local was better and now it's not. It is complicated, and it's the job of government and industry to plough through the complexity to ensure that we don't have unsustainable products in our shops, irrespective of where they happen to come from.'

Defra is set to release a set of sustainability indicators for food at the end of 2009 in an effort to reduce our nation's emissions from food production. We'll all be waiting to hear what they have to say with bated breath I'm sure!

Making headlines in all the major newspapers last week was the result of a report on organic food that it is no healthier than non-organic food. The report in question, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), found that "there are no important differences in the nutrition content or any additional health benefits, of organic food when compared with conventionally produced food".

Of course this created a frenzy in the media. The Times reports: "Organic food is no healthier than other produce, according to the Government's food watchdog". Joanna Blythman from the Daily Mail says it's "a cancerous conspiracy to poison your faith in organic food". Leo Hickman from the Guardian says "it's just a shame we can't ask the local birds, fish and insects for their expert testimony on which method they prefer."

Carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine this is an accurate report as far as the past research that was used to create its findings goes. But there is so much it misses out. It reviews 11 studies only and the FSA itself admits to a lack of research on which to base findings.

It is unclear in many of the studies that ‘certified' organic produce was used. It does not include contaminant content i.e. foods exposed to pesticides, herbicides and the like and it does not compare the environmental or ethical impacts of organic and conventional agricultural practices. Also 4 of the 6 human studies used 20 participants or less and 4 other studies didn't consider the overall diet of participants - "almost akin to feeding a doughnut-eating coach potato and a vegan cyclist organic apples for a week and then comparing the differences in their health" as Mark Anslow from the Ecologist aptly put it. Not exactly meaty evidence to draw strong conclusions from, is it?

The researchers concluded at the end of the report that the evidence base currently available "contains limitations in the design and in the comparability of studies... examination of this scattered evidence indicates a need for further high-quality research in this field." Hopefully scientists pick up on this and we'll soon see an influx of more detailed, comprehensive research undertaken.

Despite all the controversy around nutritional benefit of organic food there is strong evidence to support it's importance for animal welfare, a chemical-free environment, and the avoidance of genetically modified produce. Organic is the way forward for us however you look at it.

What do you think? Will you stop eating organic based on this report? Write in and let us know.

By the way the researchers did find significant differences in nutritional content of organic and conventional foodstuffs including higher levels of phenolic compounds, magnesium, zinc, flavonoids, sugars, dry matter, and phosphorus in organic food. A worthy find considering many of us in the west are deficient of zinc or magnesium.

News just in from the Worldwatch Institute (the independent research organization for sustainable living) on the global organic agriculture industry. They say that there has been a 118% increase between 2000 and 2007 of organic agricultural land worldwide. 32.3 million hectares organics are taking up but that's still only about 1% of the total land being farmed in the world.

Wordwatch's Vital Signs 2009 report also says that the Asian organic food market is experiencing huge growth rates of 15%. China now has 2.8 million hectares of organically managed land whilst India has 1 million hectares.

We've already noticed with companies like Cadbury's buying Green & Blacks that supply chains are merging and Worldwatch confirm this adding that there is a growing trend for a highly processed organic foods.

A trend that is bound to bring further debate is that global sourcing rather than local in the organic industry is becoming prevalent - the quantity of organic products traded internationally is on the up. We'd love to hear what you have to say on this - send us you're comments and we'll share with other organic-ites.

So Organic has been voted Highly Commended in two categories at the 2009 Natural Health Beauty Awards.

Judges were impressed by our own brand range highlighting our So Organic products in the ‘Best Value Range' and ‘Best Conditioner' categories. The So Organic Conditioner in particular was Highly Commended for leaving hair "fantastically tangle free".

We love using the So Organic products and it's so good to have them acknowledged in the natural and organic industry - well done us!