Every ingredient Dermagic uses traces back to soil — the oils, the botanicals, the beeswax. So when the soil is in trouble, our whole industry is in trouble. Here’s why we care, and what we’re doing about it.
We worry about ingredients
At Dermagic we spend a lot of time worrying about ingredients. We look at what they are and where they come from. We look at quality and purity. We look at whether the source is sustainable. And we look at whether the materials are certified organic, or grown on organic farms.
That focus is what lets us make products that work without steroids, synthetic perfumes or harsh detergents. The integrity of the formula depends entirely on the integrity of the raw materials.
Beeswax and bees
Take one example: we use natural beeswax in some of our formulations. Beeswax is irreplaceable — there is no synthetic substitute that does the same job in a natural formulation. And the only source of beeswax is the honeybee.
The decade-long decline in honeybee populations worries us deeply. Bees pollinate a huge proportion of the food and plant matter all life depends on. If they disappear, the absence of beeswax will be the smallest of our problems — but it will still be a problem, and there is no replacement for either the bee or the wax it produces.
Deeper than the bees
But the worry goes deeper than any single species or any single ingredient. Beneath the creatures, beneath the vegetation, lies the soil.
What is the nature of the soil our plant materials come from? How are those materials processed to preserve and protect their natural goodness? And under what conditions will these plants be grown next year, or in ten years?
The answers matter. They affect the quality of every aloe leaf, every drop of essential oil, every gram of plant butter that goes into a Dermagic product.
Peak soil
There’s a term for the global problem we’re worried about: peak soil. It describes a silent global crisis — the depletion and degradation of fertile topsoil at a rate faster than it can naturally regenerate. Industrial agriculture, deforestation, and erosion are stripping the soil that all life on land ultimately depends on.
For now, we maintain the quality of our products by buying only from suppliers who share our ideals — certified organic where available, sustainably grown, carefully processed. But looking ahead, the concern isn’t just for our company or our products. It’s for the future of everything our existence depends on.
What we ask of you
Read about it. We’re not asking for a donation, an email address, or a sign-up. Just awareness.
Stephen Leahy’s piece Peak Soil: The Silent Global Crisis in Earth Island Journal is a careful, well-researched introduction to the problem. Read it and let the awareness sink in.
We still believe it’s not too late.
Why this matters for pet skincare
If you’re choosing natural pet skincare, you’re already part of the answer. Every choice for a product made from honestly-sourced organic ingredients is a vote for the kind of agriculture that preserves soil rather than depletes it. Every choice against products built on petrochemical-derived synthetics is a small piece of the wider shift.
Dermagic exists because Dr. Adelia Ritchie refused to lose her dog to a skin disease the standard system couldn’t treat. The same principle scales up: refusing to lose the soil, the bees, the plants — and the natural products industry that depends on all of them — to a system that wasn’t built with their preservation in mind.
For specific guidance email info@dermagic.eu or call 01624 829575.