ORGANIC VS NON-ORGANIC CBD OIL

We know it can be hard to find CBD products that aren't just about making money. That's why we make sure to use only USDA organic-certified ingredients in our products—and we even have the certificate to prove it!

The word "organic" is everywhere these days, but does it actually mean anything? Not really. Companies all across the United States add the words "organically-grown" and "organic" to just about everything they can find, especially CBD products. That's because there are no rules behind the use of this word when it comes to food and supplement packaging in the United States. Instead, we have the USDA organic seal for companies that want to stand out from the crowd.2

Looking for a copy of our USDA organic certificate? Click to download a PDF of our organic certificate.

Organic VS USDA Organic - When the hemp program started after the 2014 Farm Bill, no pesticides had been approved by the EPA for use on hemp crops. That meant that any hemp grown before 2019 was automatically "organically-grown" or "organic," without the use of pesticides.3

That was true until the EPA approved 10 pesticides in December of 2019, before approving 49 more during 2020 and 2021. Pesticides are used in high volume commercial agricultural businesses like the soy bean and corn industries. Farmers spray fields quickly and easily with pesticides like Roundup to rid them of bugs and other costly pests.4

Today, the EPA has approved dozens of pesticides to be used in conventional farming operations, just the same way they've approved now 59 different pesticides to be used in conventional hemp farming.

After these pesticides became approved for use in hemp programs across the country in 2019, many CBD brands who had been claiming to be "organically-grown" or "organic" never changed their packaging or websites, even after their companies began using the pesticides that were approved by the EPA. Why? Because there are no rules or regulations to stop them.

Which brings us to why the USDA organic program exists today.

USDA Organic Certification

The USDA organic seal is the only way to prove to our customers that our products were actually made according to the organic standards required by the USDA. There's just no other way around it.

So what are those standards? They are essentially the difference between being "organic" vs USDA certified organic.

No laws or regulations exist around using the word "organic" or "organically-grown" outside of the purview of the USDA organic program, which regulates the use of the USDA Organic seal. That's why companies like Cornbread Hemp must go through the rigorous process of being certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture — it's the only way to prove that a product is truly organic.5