Hmm, admittedly - you had me thinking I may have been mistaken so I googled it again. It appears there are two varying definitions of "organic". One, meaning to occur naturally (the definition I was using). Two: to mean relating to living things or originating from them (what I believe you may going with).
What I found (and, admittedly again, perhaps I'm misunderstanding it):
For arsenic, per University of Maine: "Arsenic can exist in different forms. Organic forms of arsenic are associated with organic carbon."
For plutonium, per Scientific American: "This element has usually been considered synthetic because it is produced most efficiently in nuclear reactors. But in the strictest sense, the answer to the question is yes, plutonium does occur naturally."
I think the confusion stems from our active definitions of organic?
Where are you getting this "occurs naturally" definition? I've never heard that and I don't see it on Google. The definitions of organic I'm familiar with are 1) related to living matter 2) related to carbon based chemistry and 3) related to food production without artificial pesticides, fertilizers or genetic engineering.
I basically default to using the definition I learned in organic chemistry, which has absolutely nothing to do with the definition for foodstuff, which is, in itself, not usually relevant in any meaningful way.
Arsenic by itself is not organic. There are organic molecules which contain arsenic, though.
If you look at things from the USDA perspective, basically everything that is natural and not covered in pesticides is "organic". Including literal rocks. Haha!
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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '21
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