What is Natural?

We love the following answer to this question as explained with a little help from our friends at The Vermont Soap Company:

Many products on the market today claim to be "natural". But what makes a product "natural"? Most people have a common-sense definition of what "natural" is or should be. For example, natural to most people means being able to pronounce all the ingredients and not needing a chemistry textbook to understand them. The definition of "Natural" is important. It sets apart socially responsible companies from the rest. Synthetic ingredients can be toxic, and usually cost less than natural ingredients giving the mass-marketed multinational corporations a competitive advantage. The big companies know that the natural organic products market is growing by about 25% every year and consumers are demanding products that are healthier and better for the environment. These big corporations have jumped on the "natural" bandwagon and cranked up their marketing machines to benefit from green consumerism. Having a loose definition of natural is just what they want. Take a look at the supermarket shelves and you will see the multitude of "natural" claims. Their definition of natural includes manipulated and chemically altered ingredients. To them "natural" is just another marketing gimmick, not a way of life. With all of the bogus claims out there, how do we get consumers to realize Granny Good's Naturals products are really natural?

Can any product claim to be Natural? 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the watchdog for bogus environmental claims. The FTC's guidance does not address "natural" marketing claims specifically. However, the guidance includes a section on general environmental benefit claims that states, "every express and material implied claim that the general assertion conveys to reasonable consumers about an objective quality, feature or attribute of a product or service must be substantiated." With so many products on the market claiming to be natural and so few government resources to enforce bogus claims, it is up to consumers to identify what is truly natural. Consumers should carefully read product labels including ingredients lists and then vote for their definition of natural with their buying power!

"Natural" vs. "Organic" Labeling:

The government has regulations regarding the use of the word "organic" as used in lableing and has issued a list of ingredients which are acceptable to be considered as "organic". Be aware! Some of the ingredients included in this approved list are polyethylene glycol (a polyester compound used from industrial manufacturing to medicines) and petrolatum (an ingredient derived from petroleum). Who to trust? Trust yourself!! Read the labels of the products you use! Look for natural and organic ingredients - if you can't pronounce it, don't buy it! We at Granny Good's began our company using the name Granny Good's Organics. When we discovered that some of the list of government approved ingredients allowed to be used in organic products was not what we considered to be "natural", that there was no standardized system for approving organic materials and no standardized cost for organic certification, we decided to change our name to Granny Good's Naturals and let you the consumer be the judge of what you wish to see in an ingredient list. We believe you will agree when you examine our product ingredients, it just doesn't get more natural! We know that as consumers ourselves, we should all have the right to make our own ultimate choices of what we purchase depending on what we wish to support.

 We believe our consumer is smart. 

Are synthetic and chemical ingredients safe?

Some ingredients in mass-marketed products include Isopropyl Alcohol, DEA, artificial fragrances, FD&C colors, Propylene Glycol, Paraben, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Triclosan amongst others have been proven harmful to human health and can cause severe irritation in some people. These ingredients are not natural. Some companies will include a trace of truly natural ingredients in a product with some  of the synthetic ingredients above and claim the product is natural. Bogus!

Our definition of "Natural"

What does "Natural" mean at Granny Good's Naturals? It means no artificial preservatives, additives, colors and fragrances and no testing on animals. It means using Rosemary extract and Vitamin E as a preservative, not a chemically-derived formula. Natural is about using pure organic ingredients. Natural is about better choices and the responsibility inherent in those choices: organic before pesticides; botanicals before artificial colors and fragrances; vegetable-based before animal-based; and reusable before disposable. Natural is about big-picture thinking. It's about socially responsible business, looking at how we source, formulate and package and reuse or safely dispose of what's left. It's about the relationship between producer and consumer and the planet we share. It is about staying as close to the original form as possible. Natural is about developing an integrated long-term view of everything that we do.