The Organic Trading Company is owned and run by Timothy and Michelle Toft and the idea for the business came about in a fairly unusual way.
It all started when a nuclear power plant exploded in Russia. The effects of the fallout from Chernobyl have been far-reaching and long-lasting and, at the time of this accident, Michelle was a student in Hull in the UK. Shortly after the birth of our son, Thomas, Michelle found that she just didn't have the energy she used to have and visited the doctors. After a number of tests and investigations, it was discovered that she had thyroid cancer. Quite rare in a woman of her age and even more rare was that the type of cancer she had was usually caused by exposure to radiation. Michelle became one of statistics of an estimated 20,000 people across Northern Europe who have contracted cancer as a result of Chernobyl. Thus began our journey...
We started looking at things differently - what we ate, what we drank, what clothes we wore, what we washed in, etc... Once we started doing this, we began to realise how many things contained dangerous ingredients and substances which we took entirely for granted as having already been tested and were safe to use/good for us. We could accept it, or we could choose to make a difference. We started with our food first, then Michelle suggested that if food could be organic, why wasn't clothing and what was in all those shower gels, cosmetics, and skincare products?
We quickly realised that many of the things in most high street stores and supermarkets were one, or all, of the following; environmentally unfriendly, contained harmful ingredients, took advantage of consumers through misleading advertising and/or exploited other human beings. We realised that manufacturers were telling us half-truths - products labelled 'natural' or 'organic', 'pure', etc... simply weren't. Put an organic ingredient in a food or product and you can put organic on the label, even if the remaining ingredients are harmful to health. Truly good organic products were hard to come by - A lot of mail order and internet sites sell obscure products of questionable quality, and 'organic/natural' shops often have the feeling that you've stepped back into the sixties and 'smell funny'. Shocking clothing, often with the right ideals, but with absolutely no sense of style, and bed linen that was too rough to sleep on.
Then there was the cost. Many of these products were unreasonably expensive - going 'green' was not only going to be expensive, but we'd be buying products which weren't stylish, didn't perform well and often didn't do what they promised. We started to investigate the market and found fantastic products that we really liked, which did what they set out to do and weren't getting the prominence they deserved. We found that there was a real need to bring these together. That's when the Organic Trading Company was born.
We opened our store in Rozelle, NSW, in 2003 which brought together the positive qualities of eco-lifestyle together - superior quality organic and eco-friendly products that make our lives better and the lives of those that produce them, too. In 2008, we closed the Rozelle store believing that we can now bring an even better experience through our webstore.
Buying the best organic and eco-friendly products shouldn't be an expensive option so our policy is to offer the best price available on the items we sell and have a price matching policy to back this up. However, we realise that organic clothing may never as cheap as other clothing. Why? If you're going to pay someone a decent wage, this should be reflected in the price of the clothing you buy. You can buy cheap (and sometimes very expensive) clothing made in sweatshops, or you can support fair trade and know that the t-shirt you've bought is actually going to help someone feed their family and protect our environment. Someone, somewhere is paying the price for the cheap clothing you buy - child exploitation, slaves, sweatshops and abuse are common in the clothing and footwear industries. Beware of cheap clothes - the real cost is hidden in every thread!
We're committed to giving you the finest possible service and providing you with honest information to enable you to make an informed choice about everything you buy. We've tried to ensure that shopping on our site is a positive experience, so we've minimised the use of graphics and fancy details to help you navigate around quickly and easily. Through our webstore our goal is to bring together our basic principles - equality, decency, respect and love for humanity and our planet - and to communicate these through all our dealings with others - our customers, suppliers and our community.
