Speaking of misuse of language (see the previous post), a few weeks back I mentioned that the Oxford English Dictionary was so far holding firm against McDonald’s attempts to redefine the term “McJob“. Here at home, corporate America, in the form of Anheuser Busch in this instance, is finding that Bushco is more accommodating when it comes to perverting the language.
In tihs morning’s Times there’s a very short article (not on the web) about the Administration’s decision to redefine the term “organic” to make it more corporate friendly. The article I read is not on the web, but I found a similar article, which is, unfortunately, on Times Select.
The rules provide that something is organic if it is made of 95% organically grown ingredients, with the other 5% made up of approved non-organics. A substance can get on the approved list only if it’s unavailable in organic form in sufficient quality or quantity. It seems the Budweiser folks want to sell organic beer, but they don’t want to use organically grown hops. It says here that beer consists of four ingredients: water, malt, hops, and yeast. It also says there that water comprises 90% of beer, so hops may in fact be less than 5% of the volume of beer. Of course, you know without having to check that the Bud folks just don’t want to put out the coin for the real stuff, nor do they want to be bothered with encouraging organic production. Far easier to redefine the term. Afer all, is it really so important that the ingredients in organic labelled foods really be organic? It isn’t only hops:
The latest battle over what can be called organic involves beer and gelatin, food colorings and casings for sausage. The Department of Agriculture, the final arbiter of all things organic, is poised to approve a list of nonorganic ingredients that can be used in food stamped with its green-and-white organic seal.
The list includes hops for beer, dill weed oil for flavoring pickles, and elderberry juice coloring for making foods bright red to blue purple. There is also chia, an herb from Central America that is used in some baked goods, and fructooligosaccharides, a bulking agent that adds fiber.
I have to admit I believe there’s a shortage of organic fructooligosaccharides.
The industry had two years to petition for the changes; the public has seven days to object. Seven whole days. Bushco is getting soft.
Maybe the Country Time folks can get their product labeled organic lemonade, on the theory that it’s expensive to buy organically grown lemons and the product is 99% water anyway. (Just as an aside, since water is in no sense “organic”, shouldn’t it be excluded in computing the percentages?)
It seems to me that this sort of linguistic legerdemain has all kinds of possibilities. Why not allow Ben and Jerry’s to call its ice cream fat free on the theory that it is made with all fat free ingredients, except for those that are not available fat free in sufficient quantities?
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