The founder and director of the Organic Consumers Association, Ronnie Cummins, recently compared the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the pervasive use of petrochemcials in conventional cosmetic products. From the cars we drive to the shampoo we lather up with every morning, oil is in everything. And our oil-dependent lives have felt the pangs of oil withdraw more than once (skyrocketing summer gas prices are always fun).

Cummins said personal care products account for approximately 4 percent of the U.S.’s oil consumption. Four percent!? So every day I wash my hair, sanitize my hands, put on makeup and eat a non-organic salad (fossil-fuel derived pesticides and fertilizers) I’m contributing to the U.S.’s oil consumption and putting petrochemcials on my body? There’s a wake-up call. Cummins is advocating USDA organic-certified cosmetic usage (not cosmetics equivocally touting organic) and I’m jumping on the bandwagon. Our insatiable reliance on oil is embarrassing and wasteful. Don’t just go green … go crazy for green, because our body’s and nation’s health depends on it.