Organic food

All food is ‘organic matter’ (containing compounds from once-living organisms), and all food is made up of chemicals. The food sense of ‘organic’ was invented in 1940 by Walter James, fourth Baron Northbourne, a devotee of the esoteric ‘spiritual science’ promulgated by Rudolf Steiner. Since then, claims for the superiority of ‘organic’ food have often rested on a sentimental eco-mysticism.

Related Episode

The Unspeak Dictionary exposes the meaning and historical context behind familiar Unspeak terms while crowdsourcing new terms into a collective database.

Select a term on the left to show its definition, reference links, and alternative definitions

Suggest a new Unspeak term, add an alternate definition or a new reference link

Vote on the best alternative definitions.

Discover related terms in the episode.

Explore various data visualizations that reflect the real-world usage of the selected term

Watch related episode