Jeff "fuzzy" WenzelFounder, Fuzzy Wenzel Startup Consulting · Founder & CEO Driving Investment Acquisition Success

They'd Only Certify 20% of the Plant | Bas Bale, Ecologic Circle

1 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, Bas Bale of Ecologic Circle explains how his organization achieved the world’s first organic packaging certification. By engaging their supply base—organic rice certifiers—they negotiated to expand certification beyond the rice kernel (the traditionally certified 1/20th of the plant) to include the remaining 19/20 of the plant, encompassing soils, water, and the broader agricultural ecosystem. Bale emphasizes that any trace of chemicals would invalidate the claim, highlighting the rigorous standards and collaborative effort required to certify the entire plant as organic, marking a pioneering step in sustainable packaging.

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And a new dimension that we are bringing into the picture is that we have managed to be the first in the world to be certified organic packaging. Mm-hmm. Wow. We have all of our supply base is organic rice certifiers. Put them, sat them down and said, look guys, sort of 1/20th of the plant is the rice kernel, but you are checking everything. You're checking the plant, you're checking the soils, you're checking the water in the area. And any trace of chemicals, we get penalized and we can't claim anything. But we said, look, other 19/20 of the plant are also organic and we'd like to certify that. So they agreed. That's right.