There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
- Proverbs 6:16-19
The Lord detests lying lips,
but he delights in people who are trustworthy.
- Proverbs 12:22
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
- Genesis 1:29
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest
is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
- Song of Solomon 2:3
I apologize ahead of time, but I have written often about how language changes. And a lot of the language change creates confusion. And I have come to the conclusion that some of it is done just for that purpose.
I am a chemical engineer by way of my BS and ME (masters of engineering) degrees. In college, as a sophomore, I took a graduate level class in Organic Chemistry. I got the third highest grade in the class. Two students got “curve-busting” 100% on everything, homework and exams. They belonged to a fraternity who had the exams for all the tests in all the key subjects. They stayed to themselves, even during the labs. I wonder if they learned anything. Since both of them were pre-Med majors, I hope they learned something along the way.
But Organic Chemistry focused on things that come with nature. But technically, the carbon-hydrogen-oxygen bonds. Of course, there is nitrogen that is thrown in. Wood is organic. Crude oil is organic. Plastics are organic. And a banana is organic.
When you aren’t worried about single bonds, double bonds, and the dreaded triple bonds that carbon atoms make with each other. Or that glorious carcinogen aromatic ring of benzene and others of that kind… Then, you are looking at inorganic chemistry. When you get sulfuric acid to melt through a lead plate or you use sodium hypochlorite to keep the water clean, you are dealing with inorganic chemistry.
But some time ago, I went to the warehouse store and I bought bananas and strawberries.
The checkout person looked at them, and she asked if I had considered the Organic varieties of each. The organic varieties looked better, and they did not have harmful chemicals sprayed on them. Of course, they were fifty cents per pound more expensive. You just cannot get the yield when you do not used chemicals to prevent bug bites, algae and fungus, and with some things, the weeds that choke the good plants.
I understand organic gardening, but I used to eat radishes, carrots, and strawberries while picking them. They still had dirt on them. I tried to brush the dirt off, but I was nowhere near the garden hose. So, I ate trace amounts of turkey manure and harsh chemicals. Oh, that might stunt my life expectancy.
But I contend that I have more resistance to life in this world than the antiseptic young adults who have eaten nothing but “organic” bananas.
I explained to the checkout lady that I had eaten dirt on occasion and I survived. I prefer the inorganic bananas and strawberries.
Hey! That was a joke. Maybe the inorganic bananas were more organic than the “organic” grown bananas.
I am sticking to my chemical language. Both Organic bananas and inorganic bananas are Organic. By the way, a banana is a berry by scientific definition (if you did not take my quiz this morning).
It is really odd when we spray an insecticide, made totally of organic materials, the fruit that the insecticide was sprayed onto is no longer Organic.
Go ask any intelligent chemistry professor and he would have trouble with that last paragraph.
Sugar is an organic compound, but we need to watch how much of it that we eat.
Something else that we need to be careful of our intake is salt. Table salt is considered mostly NaCl. Is there any organic-ness in NaCl, Sodium Chloride? No, none whatsoever. But this is where we get to contradictory definitions.
I am using a common food supplement that everyone understands. This is just one problem. In chemistry, salt becomes “organic salt” if there is a trace of impurity in the salt that is an organic compound. Let’s say that the anti-caking material is an organic compound. Chemically, the salt then becomes “organic salt” although there is not enough “impurity” to change the taste. When I was growing up in the South, very hot, very high humidity, caking of the salt was a problem. We added rice to the salt shaker. No longer salt. Now, organic salt. But the rice kernels were too large to come out of the shaker holes. You only got the salt in your food.
But let’s look at the marketing definition of “organic salt.” It is salt with no impurities like iodine and caking agents. I grew up with iodized salt. The iodine was added to reduce the likelihood of goiter. I had family members who had goiter problems. When you saw an old great-aunt with a goiter that doubled the size of her neck, you double-checked to make sure you had iodized salt. I have no problem with iodine in my salt, but now I have to find iodine by other means. But I am sure that people in the South still put rice in their “organic salt” because that stuff clumps up and won’t come through those holes in the shaker. Okay, those grinders might resolve that technicality.
But the thing that makes something technically “organic” makes the same thing not “organic” in the marketing world.
Marketing stole the word “Organic” to add confusion and increase the price, and the consumer buys it because it is “healthier” – more advertising hype.
“Organic” products should have a different name. The legitimate name should be “Grown without better chemistry, thus lower yield from the plant, and much higher price for the consumer while 99% of the product is the same as the cheaper stuff.”
Now I see the problem. Honesty does not sell, nor does it fit on the label.
Does God give a deceiver a free pass because the truth does not fit on the label?
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Leave a comment