Happy Earth Month!
To celebrate we are highlighting exclusive Q&As with our organic brand partners to learn more about their commitment to a healthy planet. Today our featured interview is with Merryfield! Read our interview below to learn more and follow them on social.
Why is it important for your brand to celebrate Earth Month and how are you celebrating throughout the month?
Celebrating Earth Month is incredibly important to us, but caring for the earth and minimizing our environmental impact is woven into everything we do. Merryfield is a rewards app for better-for-you products and we founded it upon the belief that it should be easier to find brands and products that meet a higher standard — and are better for you and better for the environment. Co-Founder Joe Dickson is our Head of Quality Standards and Policy, and he’s led our team to build our collective of purpose-driven brands. We’ve chosen brands that share our mission of making clean, eco-friendly products available to everyone. To honor Earth Month, we’ll be sharing stories about everything from our brand partners’ use of regenerative agriculture to the importance of organic farming to upcycling.
What does your brand do to help create a healthier environment and to treat the planet more respectfully every day?
In creating our industry-leading standards for personal care and household cleaning products, we carefully weighed the safety and the environmental impact of each ingredient in creating our banned ingredients list. Ingredients that are known to harm wildlife and persist in the environment, like phosphates, chlorine, and chemical sunscreens, aren’t allowed in any products from Merryfield member brands. We also understand that the products we buy have rippling effects on our own health and those of the planet. The agricultural practices that bring food to our plates directly impact the environment, and the personal care and cleaning products that go down our drains end up in waterways and soil. At Merryfield, a commitment to protecting the planet is woven into our standards and the stories of our collective of purpose-driven member brands. And it goes without saying: Packaging matters. We’re actively highlighting brands that use both recycled and recyclable packaging and take an active role in making it easy for shoppers to recycle or reuse packaging.
Why is organic an important part of your brand?
We support USDA Organic as the gold standard for clean labels, and it’s perhaps our app’s most valued attribute. Our consumers actively look for products that are organic products that are grown, raised, and processed without the use of 700+ chemicals, like toxic and persistent pesticides and herbicides. Organic products are certified under a strict set of Federal standards, and organic also means that products are Non-GMO, which is hugely important to us. Most GMO crops grown in the US are herbicide-tolerant— this means that they’re bioengineered to withstand massive applications of herbicides like glyphosate. These herbicides are bad for the environment, especially birds and beneficial insects, and the health of farmworkers.
What does organic do to make the planet healthier?
USDA Organic standards prohibit the use of toxic pesticides that persist in the environment and synthetic fertilizers that harm waterways. Organic farmers use techniques like crop rotation, cover cropping, and the use of manure and compost to build healthy soil, which helps store carbon dioxide and grow more nutritious food.
How can consumers celebrate Earth Month?
We encourage everyone to honor Earth Month by choosing brands and products that care for the planet. Simply opting for a chlorine-free laundry detergent from ECOS (one of our brand partners) or buying organic deli meat and bread for their sandwiches from Applegate and Dave’s Killer Bread sends an important message about supporting brands with more environmentally-friendly standards. We also recommend making small changes each day that will help the planet. It could be using a reusable water bottle instead of purchasing plastic or bringing a tote bag instead of having your groceries bagged at the store or carpooling when possible to avoid yet another car (and carbon emissions) on the road. We’re all in this together and together we can make an important impact.
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