The organic inorganic

[vakkotaur]

I saw a reference to 'organic salt' and my first thought was "How could sodium chloride be a carbon compound?"

Comments

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Because, in the original, non-chemist's sense of the word, it was derived from living sources? Maybe not. Boiling down blood to extract the salt is probably not cost effective and sure wouldn't be Kosher.

More likely it's the inaccurate folk etymology that makes "organic" mean free from chemical contaminants or pesticides (which absolutely nothing in the world is today.) "Chemical-free" salt is a difficult oxymoron, I agree. I've also seen "Chemical-free" bleach (bottled sunlight maybe?)

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's a conflict between the chemistry definition of organic (contains carbon) vs. the agricultural definition of organic (which is quite complicated but generally means 'not made with industrially manufactured chemicals').

[deyna-otter.livejournal.com]

In this sense maybe organic salt is referring to seasalt? It's not intentionally exposed to chemicals and it can be obtained easily enough.

[deyna-otter.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing the word organic thrown around too much anyway. Organic Soda, organic potato chips, organic soap. (SOAP? Soap is made of vegetable fat! If it didn't have chemicals in it it would stink soooo bad.)
As far as the definition goes: Organic(adj) used by marketing agencies to bump up the price of disgusting food products or cleaning products that don't work.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

"Organic" is to "food" as "aviation" is to "fasteners": not all that much different, not necessarily higher in quality, but significantly more expensive.