… Natural is a word that has been used in so many contexts with so many different meanings that its become almost impossible to parse. Its most basic usage, to distinguish phenomena that exist only because of humankind from phenomena that dont, presumes that humans are somehow separate from nature, and our works are un- or non-natural when compared to, say, beavers or honeybees. When speaking of food, natural is even slipperier. It has different meanings in different countries, and in the US, the FDA has given up on a meaningful definition of natural food (largely in favor of organic, another nebulous term). In Canada, I could market corn as natural if I avoid adding or subtracting various things before selling it, but the corn itself is the result of thousands of years of selection by humans, from a plant that wouldnt exist without human intervention. …
Posted on: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 05:37:36 +0000
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