“Certified” Organic Herbs??

I get lots of questions about whether the herbs I use are certified organic. Following is the quick answer I send to those questions:

Some of my herbs are organic, some are not, for a variety of reasons. Organic certification can be applied only to commercially farmed herbs, which very often do not have the same medicinal properties as those which are wild-crafted. Organic certification standards vary from country to country and even from state to state. Certification is expensive, so many small growers whose standards and practices would qualify do not apply. As far as processed herbs (extracts, salves, etc) go, the quality of water, which cannot be “organic”, affects the quality of the final product. When my children were very small I remember one brand of organic baby food testing very well while another was awful; the ingredients were identical, so the difference had to be the water or the vessels in which they were prepared. It’s not unusual for some organic vegetables at some supermarkets to not test as well as commercial items; they may be older, come from further away, be irradiated for longer life, or be transported or stored in fumigated areas. I use muscle testing to evaluate quality. Labels can lie!