"Organic"

The other day my wife saw a dry cleaners that advertised that they only used "Organic Solvents" in their dry cleaning processes. This amused the shit out of me, for you see, these clever dry cleaners know the actual meaning of the word and are using it accurately, but also deceptively, in a way. The most commonly accepted definition of the word "organic" is - relating or belonging to the class of chemical compounds having a carbon basis; "hydrocarbons are organic compounds". As you all know, over the past decade or so, the word "organic" has been saddled with a new meaning, a meaning promoted by trendy mega-corporations like Whole-Foods, Trader Joe's and Wegman's. The new meaning is of course the fourth down in the above linked list - of or relating to foodstuff grown or raised without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides or hormones; "organic eggs"; "organic vegetables"; "organic chicken".

You see, all dry cleaners use organic solvents. Organic solvents are solvents made of carbon atoms, as opposed to aqueous solvents which are typically made of oxygen (ie: water, H2O) that's why they call it "dry cleaning". The cleaning isn't done with water (an aqueous solvent, aka "wet") but instead with an organic solvent ("dry"). The most commonly used dry cleaning solvent is tetrachloroethylene, an obviously organic solvent (first definition), but simultaneously a decidedly non-organic solvent (fourth definition).

The clever dry cleaners my wife discovered were clearly using the technical meaning in their advertised "Organic Solvents" yet I fully expect that the dry cleaners were hoping certain customers would only be aware of the newer, marketing-driven meaning and think to themselves, "oh wow, this dry cleaning place must be really environmentally conscious". Don't get me wrong here, environmental consciousness is a good thing. What I think is wrong is to redefine words in the English language strictly for marketing purposes. All of the pesticides and herbicides used in industrial agriculture today are organic (carbon-based) as are all things made of carbon (like all foods, regardless of how they are grown (first definition)). As and aside; a few herbicides and pesticides exist which are non-organic because they are instead made of heavy metals. Ironically, these non-organic, heavy metal-based pesticides and herbicides are used only in organic farming.

Anyway, because of marketing giants like Whole Foods, actual government regulations have been passed that outline how foods must be raised to be labeled as organic (fourth definition). So today we have a situation whereby a food can be both organic and non-organic simultaneously depending upon whether you are speaking with someone who has taken an introductory chemistry class, or someone who shops at Whole Foods out of "principle". If you happen to fall into both categories, I expect you've had to rationalize things by context.

As a last point, if you happen to align more with the Whole Foods camp and perhaps feel that the fourth definition has now surpassed the first definition of the word "organic", let me make myself a little more clear. The first definition, "relating or belonging to the class of chemical compounds having a carbon basis" is a technical definition. It is like when doctors refer to your stomach area as your abdomen, or when scientists refer to an atom with two protons as helium. It is a solid term that has been defined and used for centuries now and is never going to change. I only wonder if these days some uninformed college students are enrolling in undergraduate Organic Chemistry (a med school requisite class) thinking that they will learn all about the chemistry of Organic Farming techniques. If so, I blame the marketing department at Whole Foods and the like for their contributions in the dumbing down of America. I salute my local dry cleaners for re-annexing the word "organic" for its originally intended purpose.