Organic vs. All Natural?

So I'm at the store and there's organic chicken and "all natural" chicken. Both have no hormones, no antibiotics. Neither one of them is bleached. But the all natural is $1/pound cheaper than the organic.
What's the difference?

$1/pound

But seriously, I imagine folks like evenflow or Aenea have a lot more knowledge about this stuff, but I believe the difference between "organic" and "all-natural" (other than the fact that both labels are complete and total horseshit) is that the term "organic" is regulated by the USDA.

Just remember, arsenic, cyanide, uranium, and mercury are "all natural".


Also, Tim Mcveigh's fertilizer bomb was "homemade", and depending on the neighborhood you go to, street crank is "like mother used to make".

Natural doesn't have a standard by the FDA. Getting very basic here, natural means that it's derived from naturally occurring sources. So you can have chemicals, pesticides, etc on the food. So if you have a preservative derived from plant sources it's "natural", if it's made in a lab but has the same chemical structure it's not natural.

So you can have GMO's (genes are natural), radiated food (since there are naturally occurring radioactive sources), pesticides/herbicides (can be made from naturally occurring sources (plants, minerals, etc., combined in a lab), hell fossil fuels are natural so products from fossil fuels can be considered natural.

Organic is defined and regulated, and it basically means no synthetic or artificial were used. Instead of a pesticide it's been treated with something like diatomaceous earth. No altering of the source either. And it has a paper trail for it from planting, growing, harvesting, packaging, delivery with each step certifying there isn't any artificial or synthetic materials introduced at any step.

Sorry, but when it comes to the whole "organic" or "natural" thing I'm from Missouri (show me). Just like bottled "pure spring" water often comes from the same source as does Dollar General water, color me skeptical.

Define "artificial" and "natural".

Because as I understand it, "organic" farmers are allowed to use certain types of pesticides and other "natural" chemicals... just not the napalm-level stuff that those evil, so-called "regular" farmers use.

Artificial: Pesticide made from man made chemicals.
Natural: Pesticide made from plant derived chemicals.
(Both have the same chemical structure)

Organic: Pesticide made from diatomaceous earth, it punctures the chitin layer and then pulls out the moisture or lets bacteria in killing the pest. Or it can be the oil that is juiced out of orange peels and then applied. It hasn't been altered or hasn't used any synthetic or artificial means of extracting it from the peel, but it can pressed out. Manure can used, but sewage cannot be used. Using other insects to control the pests. Using coffee grounds, ground tobacco, or using material from coffee/tobacco that has been pulled out by steam/boiling them, and then using that material as a pesticide.

But using a chemical means like bleach or formaldehyde to extract material to be used as a pesticide is not allowed for organic food.

Also, 'All-natural' might also mean (though it'll generally specify if this is the case) that the animals were humanely raised, free-range, humanely killed, etc. Another thing to look for and avoid: Nitrates and nitrites.

It can, the issue with "all-natural" is it can mean anything. It's a phrasing that sounds good and comes across as good. Sort of like Obama's "Yes, we can.", it sounded good, but it was a gentle way of introducing the butt-rape he pulled on the nation.

http://www.stonyfield.com/why-organic/organic-vs-natural

Huh, so more regulation (forced or voluntary) results in higher prices.

Whodathunkit?

I think it's sometimes worth it, though. I recently bought organic tomatoes because they smelled like tomatoes (unlike their 50 cent/pound cheaper nonorganic counterparts) and "naturally raised" beef brisket because it had much better marbling and was fresher than the low-cost stuff.

You can find great deals, but I find most of the time you generally get what you pay for when it comes to food.

I've been happy switching to organic. My grocery bill is a bit more expensive but I like how the fancy stuff tastes.

You gotta be careful with some organic brands, though. Horizon "organic" milk, for example, lobbied to get its organic label.

I'll be glad when I can settle down in a house and grow my own tomatoes, at least. As Prufrock mentioned, most tomatoes you buy at the store barely have any taste to them anymore; but, you can buy one of at least twenty different plant varieties as Lowe's or Home Depot for, what....ten dollars? And you'll have anything from big beefsteak types to top your burgers to ones that are sweet enough to eat like apples.

I got all my non-volunteer tomatoes from farmers' markets - they had a wider variety than any of the brick-and-mortar stores! I've got red striped and green striped and black cherry and yellow pear and green grape and lemon boy and sungold and supersweet 100s and who knows what the volunteers are . . .

That's because they've been so heavily modified by selective breeding(?) to ripe faster and evenly (to have an even red color) that they don't have enough time on the vine to convert carbon, water, and light energy to the normal amounts of sugar through the light and dark cycles.

The growth rate is so accelerated that the plant doesn't produce enough sugar to give the taste you expect.

Funny thing is, I dislike the odor of tomato plants.

But the fruit themselves are pretty good.

That odor is a warning that the leaves are poisonous (they're from the nightshade family). Still, nothing beats a home-grown tomato, sliced while it's still warm from the sun (though those $5.99 a pound "tomatoes on the vine" are close).