In a perfect world, every piece of rose quartz would be gently plucked from the ground by a merry person who was paid fairly and enjoyed a full set of benefits. Unfortunately, in the imperfect world in which we live, we don't usually know who's mining our healing crystals or where those mines are located.
A new petition from social justice and activism site Care2 is calling on Goop to commit to selling ethically-sourced crystals. It was posted after a report from The New Republic found an industry-wide lack of transparency among crystal retailers. As healing crystals continue to rise in popularity, more people are wondering where these stones actually come from — and what kind of toll they're taking on the environment and those who mine them.
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"Goop is a huge corporation and they have a responsibility to do the work to find out and tell their customers exactly where these healing crystals are coming from," the petition states. It specifically mentions a "medicine bag" sold on Goop's site for $85.
Given Goop's celebrity founder and its long history of dealing in ambiguous health claims, it's a highly visible (if not obvious) company to call out with a major petition. But Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand, which did not respond to The New Republic's request for comment, is not alone in its murky crystal sourcing (all it says on Goop's website is that the medicine bag has been "energetically cleansed with sage, tuned with sound waves, activated with mantras, and blessed with Reiki").
According to the report, it's actually quite rare for shops to state clearly where and how they get their crystals. Many retailers will openly discuss which of their stones were bought from trade shows, but it's a rare crystal shop that will reveal the location and labor practices of the mines they use.
So, bigger changes, beyond Goop and its medicine bag, are needed in the crystal industry. But that doesn't mean that this petition is pointless. If a major wellness company like Goop were to change its practices around crystal sourcing and shared that info with its consumers, it could very well incite a sea-change.
As of writing, the petition has 5,740 supporters — a little more than halfway to its goal of 10,000. Its call to action ends on a powerful note, one that Goop — and, really, all crystal retailers — could stand to hear: "If they continue selling healing crystals that could have been mined using child labor, or contaminating local water supplies, no amount of Reiki excuses their complicity in that abuse."