Scribe on 'Organic'

Our bodies contain traces of over 160 chemicals that didn't even exist sixty years go.

No wonder, then, that de-toxing is fashionable. We do, literally, need to rid our bodies of toxic chemicals. Similarly, organic food is very fashionable these days. It's right up there with the plasma TV’s, the Mercedes, the leather sofa and the iPod.

But hang on a moment. What does organic even mean? Well, to me, it means 'normal'. Yes, that's right - normal. Bog-standard. As Mother Nature intended. It means that no chemicals have been added, that it's from a natural process, that it's good and clean and wholesome.

But isn't that what it always was? Certainly, it's what it ought to be. That's not trendy, that's what I expect as standard. It's common sense. People are falling over themselves to jump on the organic band-wagon (and a wagon it most assuredly is, not a 4x4; a carbon-offset, renewable-source, non-farmed wooden wagon, powered by organic-oat-fed little shire horses). It's expensive, it's designer, and it’s chic. But £4.00 for a bag of organic carrots? Fuck off.

The price is because - what? - it takes more effort to produce something as nature intended than it does to farm modified, pesticide-ridden, preservative-laden produce. It's more expensive NOT to screw around with the earth's bounty. Oh dear.

Surely we've got that one wrong. Society has embraced organic culture, but this poses another problem. A guilty secret - what's non-organic food? Surely by singing the praises of organic we're admitting we've failed in some parts of our farming and processing. We've got it wrong. We've had to go back to something we tried to leave behind, and we're hoping everyone will be too polite to mention it. It's a bit like leaving a girlfriend for something a bit flashier and then having to come crawling back when it doesn't quite work out. We're now charging pounds for plain, simple, natural produce that was being produced that way a thousand years ago. Peas-above-sticks, as they say. Organic peas, in fact.

The very use of the organic label is annoying in itself, but that's a social thing, and it won't change any time soon. There has always been that label in the consumer world. Some days it's Channel, some days it's Beverly Hills; it's still a fashion statement.

But I don't want to eat a fashion statement. I want a nice plate of potatoes.

So please, stop buying organic.

Start buying normal.