Beyond Natural, Pt. 2

In our political life, "freedom" is something we often speak of in absolute terms but practice in relative ones. In our economic, physical, and imaginative lives, the concept of "naturalness" receives similar treatment. We sharply contrast the natural with the "man-made," though in most things, not least in what we eat, the line between those becomes fuzzy. But the belief that there is a line suggests we can identify a natural quality to what we eat. Relatively speaking, of course.

I would say we can call foods natural to the degree that that non-manipulated natural processes and environmental factors have a role in their production. Crops that can thrive in a particular area without irrigation would be more natural than those requiring it. Products that require less processing would be more natural than those that do--an apple, perhaps even one raised with the aid of chemical pesticides, would more natural than a granola bar. A granola bar sweetened with cane juice (mechanically extracted but produced by the sun, the plant, and its environment) is more natural than one sweetened with refined sugar. Beef fed on wild grasses could be considered more natural than that from feedlots.

You can see where this is going, though likely you can also can poke some holes in the standard I've laid out. For example, you could ask whether it's more natural to raise green peppers with pesticides here in Michigan or raise them organically in Mexico and ship them 2,500 miles to my local market. I could counter that green peppers are native to Mexico (or at least were first cultivated there), and we could go back and forth for as long as it takes a naturally farmed salmon to go from fry to frying pan.

However, that does not mean that concept of natural food for the mass market is ultimately hollow and suitable for promotional purposes only. It it valuable if only because it provokes such scrutiny. It leads us to think about how and where we get our food, and in a time when so many of us are far removed from the physical circumstances of its production, that's a very good thing.