Organic Water ?

There's a word in this society that has been misused so much that it has lost any real meaning. That word is "organic". This word has been applied to foods, medicines and other kinds of products, and is generally taken by people to be the mark of something that is good for you. In fact, every day many people pay more for a product labeled as "organic" than they would pay for a product without that label.

I just read a post by Allison Aubrey and Jessica Goldstein over at the NPR health blog. They recently ran across a bottled water labeled as "organic" (and had to suppress their giggling at the ridiculousness of the claim).

There are a couple of definitions of organic. One is something containing carbon. Another is something (usually a foodstuff) grown without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. It is impossible for water to meet either one of those definitions. It contains no carbon (since it is made of two hydrogen atoms combined with a single oxygen atom). And it is not grown (being a non-living thing). In fact, the Department of Agriculture specifically excludes both water and salt (although I'll bet you can but salt labeled as organic) as being "organic".

Of course this is a ridiculous example of something being labeled as "organic" just to fool people into buying it. But I think it is probably indicative of many other products and their use of the word. We need to be more discriminating buyers and understand that just because something is labeled as organic doesn't necessarily mean it is good or healthy for humans. It may or may not be.

After all, deadly nightshade, poison mushrooms and cow manure all meet the definition of "organic", but it wouldn't be a good idea to ingest any of them. Years ago, the health food industry latched on to the word as a way to let people know something about the food they were buying. But as the water example above shows, the word is being misused by so many people that it has lost much of its meaning.

The business of "health" supplements has also done its part to make the word meaningless. They label many products as "organic" -- products that do nothing to really improve a person's health (and some of them could actually do harm if misused), even though they may actually be "organic".

The word "organic" is not magic and by itself makes nothing better. It's become just a word used by advertisers to sell more of a product -- a word like "new" or "improved". It would be well for us to remember that just because a claim is made, doesn't mean that claim is true. Advertisers and manufacturers have been known to lie, stretch the truth, or use a word they know consumers like. That's just part of living in a free society with a free market system. Buyer Beware!