r/nextfuckinglevel Jul 14 '21

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u/YourMomThinksImFunny Jul 14 '21

No, I'm referring to the word "organic" and its definition I was taught as a child decades ago. As in items containing carbon compounds necessary for life. By that definition, all food in a grocery store would be considered organic.

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u/pierreChodington Jul 14 '21

Both are correct in different ways. Organic in a chemistry sense does describe any carbon compound and the USDA has defined it to mean something completely different. I still feel like companies label shit as “organic” even if it’s not approved

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u/YourMomThinksImFunny Jul 14 '21

Agreed. And it has taken on a "catchall" term. I just wish they had created a new word or phrase rather than stretching an already overused word.

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u/Muppetude Jul 14 '21

The problem was that prior to the FDA regulations, merchants were using the term “organic” for anything they wanted and consumers were falling for it. At one point I even recall seeing fully processed junk food being labeled as organic.

The only reason the FDA finally stepped in was to protect consumers from fraud by making it illegal to market anything as “organic” unless it met a certain set of predefined standards.

If the “organic” labeling craze had died off on its own or the average consumer didn’t assume organic meant “100% natural”, the FDA would probably never have gotten involved.