I'm looking at the ingredient list in a packaged lentil salad. There are seven ingredients, and each one has an asterisk indicating that it's certified organic.One of the ingredients is salt, which I find puzzling. Now, I kind of get the idea that you don't want salt to disqualify a food from being organic. But this labeling offends my sensibilities. Salt is a mineral. It's not in any way, shape or form organic matter. It should not be labelled as "organic." I suppose I would make the same argument about water.
Now, to be perfectly clear, I'm not accusing the makers and sellers of this lentil salad of any wrongdoing. I'm assuming there are rules for these things, and I'm sure that this label follows the rules -- both in spirit and letter.
If I were king of the world and it were up to me, inorganic ingredients would not be labelled as organic. But certain inorganic ingredients would not disqualify the product from being labelled as organic. Water and salt come to mind. While I can't think of any others offhand, I wouldn't want to say there aren't any.
FWIW, the salad was yummy.
The rabbis of the talmud made this point a couple of thousand years ago in the mishna (Eruvin 3:1). They may not have been aware of the distinction between organic and nonorganic molecules, but they rules that salt and water do not qualify as water for certain purposes.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Eruvin.3?lang=bi
Meant "... do not qualify as food..."
ReplyDeleteTwinkies don't qualify as food, but try calling them organic...
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