QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

   QUESTIONS ABOUT ORGANIC & BIODYNAMIC TERMS

Q: What do the terms Certified Organic & Certified Biodynamic mean?

A: It is prohibited under international organic standards to use food irradiation or
genetic engineering in the production of organic/bio-dynamic food and fibre.
Organic /biodynamic produce is therefore free of these processes. Certified Organic/
Biodynamic products are created through land management practices that do not 
use artificial fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, growth regulators, antibiotics,

hormone stimulants or intensive livestock systems. These practices must have

been in place for at least three years.

Q: Why is organic food certified?

A: No laws currently protect the use of the word ‘organic’. Therefore, organic
certification of a product provides regulated processes to assure consumers that
strict guidelines and goals have been undertaken and achieved.

Q: What does Certified in Conversion mean?

A: This term is similar to Certified Organic and Certified Biodynamic except that the
farmer has been farming organically for less than three years and has not yet
achieved Level A certification.

Q: How do I know it’s certified organic?

A: Certified organic foods are produced by growers who have been inspected
annually by an independent certification body there are many of these bodies all over
the world.

Organic producers are subject to an annual audit by their chosen independent
certification body. Products labelled as Certified Organic/Biodynamic and Certified in
Conversion must have the appropriate documentation verifying authenticity, so
retailers can clearly label the products for the consumer to select genuine
organic/bio-dynamic products.

Q: Why should I buy certified organic food?

A: Conventional (non-certified organic) food is everywhere. The way in which food is
produced affects you and future generations. Your choices as a consumer can
change many of the destructive practices currently used:

Protect future generations - The average child receives exposure to at least
eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in conventional food.

 

Keep chemicals off your plate - Pesticides are poisons designed to kill
organisms and have been implicated in cancers, birth defects, nerve damage
and genetic mutations.

 

Support a true economy - Conventional food prices don’t reflect the hidden
costs borne by taxpayers such as hazardous waste disposal, environmental
clean-ups, sickness and disease.

 

Stop the human experiment - The public is expected to consume irradiated
and genetically engineered conventional food without any labelling or warning

of their true effects.

 

Prevent soil erosion - Soil, the foundation of our food chain, is eroding seven
times faster through excessive chemical use. Organic farming naturally
replaces nutrients in soils.

 

Protect water quality - Toxic pesticides are increasingly contaminating the

water we consume daily.

 

Promote biodiversity - Conventional farming methods are leaving soils lacking
in natural minerals driving a dependence on fertilisers to replace nutrients.

 

Save energy - Compared with conventional farming methods, organic farming
uses 65% less fossil fuel energy and produces 60% less CO2 emissions.

 

Protect farm workers - Conventional farm workers exposed to herbicides
have six times more risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer.

 

Help small farmers - Organic and biodynamic farming is one of the few

survival means left for family farms in the wake of chemical-driven mass
production. 

QUESTIONS ABOUT POSTAGE & DELIVERY

Q. How will my order be sent?
A. If you live in Australia, your order will be sent through Australia Post E-parcel.
This is because their costs are lower and this helps keep the prices for delivery
lower for you. 

A. If you live outside Australia, we will send your order by direct airmail to you.
This will usually take between 10-14 days depending on where you live and the
efficiency of the parcel delivery services in your country. The cost of delivery
is automatically included in the delivery/freight cost in your order.

Please note that we are unable to take responsibity for lost orders
(particularly to overseas destinations). If you have a concern about this
occurring in your country, please ask for postage insurance which is an
extra cost.

Q. How can I calculate the delivery cost without purchasing?
A. At Organics Australia Online we know that freight costs are the main
concern for customers shopping in our online store.

The website automatically calculates delivery costs based on the above
system and tells you the total freight charge at the checkout after you
enter your delivery address, but before you enter payment information.

If you choose not to proceed, then you can leave that page and none of the
details you already put in will be saved or kept in any way by our systems.

This means your order will not go through, but you will know how much the
postage would have been cost had you decided to proceed with it.

Q. Why do delivery costs sometimes seem expensive?
A.  Many of our food products weigh quite a bit, particularly those packed
in glass - they have to be packaged in glass to ensure their organic quality
and integrity. Sometimes we have to use lots of packaging to protect your
order from damage in transit.

QUESTIONS ABOUT DELIVERY TIME

Q. Why is my order taking so long to come?
A. We always try to get orders sent to our customers as soon as possible. But
sometimes it can take several working days, because we are out of stock of a
product you have ordered. We prefer to send everything you ordered in the same
delivery rather that in bits and pieces.

If we are out of stock of an item you have ordered we have usually ordered it
already from our supplier/producer and are waiting for a delivery from them.

Keep in mind that the organics industry in still in its infancy and there is not yet a
very reliable and regular supply of some organic products. Supply can suddenly
stop without warning or be delayed for all sorts of reasons, such as:

• Many organic or natural products are seasonal in nature and the producers
  are not large multinational companies with large warehouses full of
  preserved stock. This means that there can be a delay due to the producers
  being out of stock and busily trying to catchup with demand, or because we
  are sourcing an alternative supply.
• Almost all of our suppliers and producers are small operators with a genuine
  and sincere commitment to producing high quality organic products. Because
  they are small they often don't have large quantities of stock stored and can
  easily run out of some products temporarily if demand increases suddenly.
• Because many of our products are organic or made from organic ingredients
  (with the quality of products heavily influenced by the weather, seasons,
  animals and insects) with few preservatives and other chemical additives,
  sometimes a particular batch of a product does not meet the standards of
  the producer or of Organics Australia Online this can cause a delay while we
  wait for a new batch of a product to be made or we source a new supply of
  the product.
• Also because some products are organic or made from organic ingredients
  they don't have the long shelf life of products packed with many preservatives
  and other additives. This means that they can't be stored for long periods and
  we can only keep a small supply of stock on hand to prevent spoiling and
  waste. We therefore have to order more frequently from our producers/
  suppliers.

In the end, our main aim is to ensure that you receive high quality organic, natural
and biodynamic products. Just sometimes it might take a little longer to get them
to you.