Are Young Living Essential Oils Organic?
The short answer is yes but because Young Living grows and sells their plants around the world where every country has different rules about organic status, they would have to apply for so many different permits.
For a farm to be considered “organic” in the United States, it has to have been free from the use of any and all synthetic chemicals for 7 years. That sounds nice, until you realize that internationally, in order for a farm to meet standards of being organic, they must be free from the use of any and all synthetic chemicals (INCLUDING run off from other farms) for a minimum of 50 years!!!
Young Living meets and/or exceeds international standards for “organic” because Gary Young the Founder of Young Living was passionate about only bottling THE BEST!
Why would you waste the money on a lesser “organic” certification, that is frankly, short sells the quality of YL oils?
So Young Living has instead chosen to be 100% transparent.
They open up their farms to the public all the time so people can see for themselves that Young Living is above organic.
They have nothing to hide.
Thousands of people visit these farms every year and if Young Living wasn’t doing everything they could to maintain their high standards for purity and potency then people would know by now.
When it comes to essential oils, the simple truth is – they aren’t all the same.
There are definitely some good quality essential oils out there, but if my business doesn’t give people the results they’re seeking, then I would soon go out of business. People come to see me in my aromatherapy practice because they want something to change.
If I recommended something that didn’t work or wasn’t the best, then they wouldn’t come back to see me and I would forever be finding new clients. That’s why I only use and recommend Young Living Essential Oils.
Quality-controlled from Seed to Seal
As I mentioned earlier, when it comes to essential oils, quality really does matter. Young Living has what they call their Seed to Seal guarantee and promise. And they abide by very strict guidelines to fulfil their promise to send only the purest products to your home.
For me, it’s like buying a cake for my child’s birthday. Sure, I can go to the supermarket and buy one off the shelf, but I’m not really sure how fresh it is or even what some of the ingredients in it are. Or, I could buy one from a specialty shop, where they sell a few different types and these are definitely better quality. However, once again I can’t be sure of the ingredients or if it was truly made with love.
But, when I make one myself I know just how fresh the ingredients are. I know what’s in it and I’ve seen how it’s made, as I made it myself. That’s exactly what Young Living does. They have their own farms where they produce a lot of their own essential oils. They’ve been doing this a long time, so they really know what makes a high quality essential oil. What really impresses me is that they are totally transparent in everything they do.
For me, seeing is believing
Young Living actually invite anyone to go and visit their farms and participate in what they call the Seed to Seal Process, so that way they can be assured of the quality of these essential oils.
I have been lucky enough to have seen their farms in Mona, Utah; Highland Flats, Idaho; St Marie’s, Idaho, Simiane-la-Rotonde, France; Dalmatia Aromatic Farm and Distillery, Split, Croatia; Finca Botanica Farm, Guayaquil, Ecuador; and the Blue Cypress farm in Darwin, Australia.
You can learn more about our recent trip to the Finca Botanica Farm in Guayaquil, Ecuador; here.
We’ve talked a lot about being green, clean and natural.
Young Living pride themselves on their sustainable, ethical, organic way of growing their plants.
Other companies talk about ‘wild crafting’ and growing the plants in their native environment, however, as we’ve seen with plants such as Sandalwood, Rosewood, Spikenard and even Helichrysum in some areas, this has caused these plants to be over-harvested and some are now close to extinction.
Young Living have taken an ethical stance on this issue and refuse to buy Rosewood or Spikenard and their Sandalwood is sourced from Australia and Hawaii, where it is not on the extinction list.
How Young Living meets the demand for essential oils?
Young Living has grown so much over the last few years that they aren’t able to source enough essential oils only from their own farms.
To meet the demand they now have partner farms. They have a few partner farms here in Australia, including a Sandalwood farm in Kunnanura, a Kunzea farm in Tasmania and Tea Tree farms in Northern NSW.
These partner farms must meet Young Living’s rigorous standards.
The standards that their farms and partner farms must abide by include:
- Selecting the strongest seeds from strong thriving plants.
- Hand-weeding and using their own oils on plants for pest control to avoid the use of toxic chemicals.
- Harvesting at peak times to ensure the highest quality oils.
- Distilling on-site without harmful chemicals. Having visited a number of their farms, I know they are engaging in organic practices and there really aren’t any of the toxic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides that are so often associated with modern farming techniques.
- Testing every batch… many, many times. If it doesn’t meet their standards, because of weather conditions or for any other reason, they do not bottle it up.
As you can imagine, all of these factors make a huge difference to the quality and effectiveness of the essential oils and blends.
Distilling essential oils in the correct way
It’s not just how an essential oil is grown that matters. Many essential oil companies grow organic essential oils but they don’t have the same knowledge of essential oil distillation that Young Living has built up over decades.
Let’s take CYPRESS ESSENTIAL OIL for example, which has 280 known chemical constituents.
If it is distilled for 20 hours you only get 20 of the 280 properties.
If distilled for 26 hours you get none of the properties.
Most cypress essential oil sold is distilled for 3.5 hours.
The correct length of time for distilling cypress is 24 hours to get the full 280 properties.
If you want Cypress to do the job it is intended to do, you MUST get ALL 280 constituents, no more, no less.
Check out my video on the right temperature, pressure and time for Juniper Essential Oil distillation.
Most people just do not realise essential oils have chemical properties in them and in order to get the full benefit out of that particular oil it has to be grown, harvested, and distilled the correct way or the oil has no benefit to us.
You can check out more about Young Living’s Seed to Seal promise at www.seedtoseal.com
Young Living goes beyond organic on their farms
At the Simiane-la-Rotonde farm in France the farm manager, Nicholas Landel, has been working hard to find ways to ensure the fields don’t need any pesticides and that our farms maintain better than organic practices.
He tried goats but they ate the lavender plants.
He tried a few different breeds of sheep and they ate the lavender plants too.
He finally found a specific breed of sheep that eat everything EXCEPT the lavender plants! And they provide really natural organic fertiliser.
Did you know that Young Living AIR-ships their essential oils from the farms all over the world????
Do you realize how much money it costs to do that vs shipping it via freighter or ship?
The reason why is so that there are less touchpoints for the oils so that Young Living maintains control of their essential oils at all times.
No Child Labour
Young Living ensures that our farms never have children working on our farms. They found that on the Bulgaria partner farm, Romanies were often coming into the area and working on the farm with their children.
Young Living gave the farm a grant to build a school and to hire a teacher so that when the gypsies come into town, the children can get a free education and are not providing child labour.
Going Green
Besides the new Young Living headquarters is the greenest building in the entire state of Utah, USA.
There is a water filtration system for all of the employees and cost over $1 million dollars. No plastic water bottles are allowed in the building.
They use gray water for the landscaping outside and inside the building.
The Young Living warehouse in the USA even got rid of their dumpster. Everything in the warehouse is now recycled or reused! Nothing goes to the landfill.
No other essential oil company goes to these lengths to ensure their oils are the cleanest and most pure on the market AND the most sustainable supply with fair trade practices.
If you’re using essential oils, make sure you know the heart of the company you’re buying from. 
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