"Greenwashing"- Never trust a label

I was originally going to post about toxic cosmetics, one of my favorite subjects but I thought I should touch on Greenwashing first.
If you haven't noticed already, the grocery shelves are lined these days with products pretending to be "natural", from Windex to Soda Pop. As the eco-movement has begun to heat up many companies have had to adjust to the demands from consumers for products that are safe and eco-friendly. Sadly, labeling in the US is very loosly regulated, which is where Greenwashing steps in. Greenwashing, or Greensheen is simply the practice of dirty PR and marketing. You may think you are buying something all natural, just because the label says so, but sadly you have been lied to.
Words like "natural", "farm fresh", "made from all natural ingredients" etc. mean literally nothing right now. "Organic" is one of the few words that is regulated, and even then there are loopholes.
A few general rules I stick to when buying anything, from food to floor cleaner are-

1. If its a color that doesn't exist in nature put it back- like blue fruit rollups or blue window cleaner- it isn't real, put it down.
2. If it has an artificial scent put it back- Lotion that you slather on your body once a day should NOT smell like cinnamon buns. Obviously this product is not natural, yes cinnamon buns may be, but there is no magic natural cinnamon bun extract that made your lotion smell like that. Chemicals did.
3.If it contains an ingredient I cannot pronounce put it back- some products will have plant ingredients labeled using their traditional latin names, but watch out for other ingredients that have more than two syllables as they are most likely toxic preservatives or additives.

Below I have included a chart which reveals the fact that most "Natural" products on the shelves these days are just subsidiary companies of MUCH LARGER multinational companies. Generally I try to stay away from these products, as I believe whenever a company gets too big, neglect and corner-cutting is almost guaranteed, which is never good when it comes to food. These "natural" foods are also processed in the same factories, on the same equipment as their counterpart products they are claiming to be healthier than!
Stick to products that come from independently owned companies, as they probably invest a lot more time, quality and hopefully love in what they are selling.

And as always, if you need some help or detective work regarding a specific product feel free to nag me!



If you can't read this, copy and paste it to your desktop, then open it in another program such as Paint or Windows and enlarge it. :)

Let's start from scratch.....

This a simple video that sums up a very large amount of information, in only 21 minutes!
You may be thinking, oh geez, 21 minutes, I have a lot of other things to do today, but I highly recommend watching all of it. Its even great to show to your kids! You could read an entire book about why and how our economy demands a toxic, unsustainable plant, or you can just watch this short film.
I couldn't get the movie to post here, so just click the link provided below.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html