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.