Learn English – How is “organic” different from “natural”

meaningsynonyms

Looking into my dictionary, one meaning of the word organic is:

occurring or developing gradually and naturally, without being forced or contrived

And you see this word being used like Organic Google Search or Organic Food or things like that.

My question is, can't we just use natural instead of organic, as in natural Google search or natural food? What makes organic different from natural?

Best Answer

OK, this will be a three-part answer.

  1. The meaning of organic has evolved over time, from the generic definition you mention (“growing or grown at its natural pace”) into a specific food-related meaning:

    “produced or involving production without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents” (New Oxford American Dictionary)

  2. Natural (in your context) means “that occurs in nature”, or “obtained from a natural source”. Its antonym is synthetic (and not chemical, as you hear so often these days). If you buy vanilla flavouring, it can be natural (a vanilla extract) or synthetic (a preparation containing the molecule vanillin, but which was synthesized by man).

    Note that any vegetable, by this definition, is natural because it grows in the soil, not in a test tube. Even if you add a lot of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, it's still a natural tomato!

  3. On top of that, the meaning of “natural” and “organic” are regulated in a lot of countries (the FDA does that in the United States). You can find many links around highlighting the huge difference: a product labeled “natural” can be grown with a lot of synthetic chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers, vitamins, etc.), while the requirements for “organic” are much more restricting.

Please: everytime you use “chemical” as antonym to natural, I die a little. Strychnine is natural, so are curare and hemlock, yet they’re all deadly.

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