Organic, all natural, non-GMO... These terms are all associated with safer, more wholesome products. Enough of the general public wants foods and cosmetics in these categories that they have gained a fairly large market share. The one thing these share in common is that they are no more safe or harmful than industrial, synthetic, and GMO products.
Organic foods have repeatedly been compared to industrial foods with no evidence that they are any safer or more healthful. The biggest benefit of organic farming is that it is not as susceptible to fertilizer run off as industrial farming is. Poorly done, however, organic farming can be as bad for the environment as industrial farming. Likewise, done well, industrial farming can be as good for the environment as organic farming. In reference to the products though, there is no significant difference.
"All natural" is an extremely overused term in retail. It turns out that a vast majority of "all natural" products contain as least one synthetic ingredient. The term is not currently even regulated. I could claim that petroleum jelly is all natural, justified by the fact that the crude oil from which it is made got there through natural means. Even if it was well regulated, however, it would say little about the safety or healthfulness of the products. Black Widow spider venom is very literally all natural, however it is often deadly. Unroasted cashews contain a deadly, all natural poison. Caffeine is naturally found in coffee and tea, and yet it is still harmful when used excessively. Fugu, otherwise known as blowfish, contains a deadly neurotoxin that will cause the victim to suffocate to death while totally coherent. Again, it is all natural. Even glucose, the primary (and "all natural") form of energy used by humans, can be extremely harmful in large amounts or in moderate amount for a long period of time. "All natural" may have some meaning, but that meaning makes no reference to safety or health.
GMO is perhaps the least well understood of this list. Many people view GMO products as the spawn of Satan. GMO foods are seen as totally unpredictable, and opponents believe that they can cause anything from cancer to actual genetic modification in humans. None of these claims are true, and in fact, it is highly probable that GMO foods are safer than non-GMO alternatives. Direct genetic modification is highly targeted, while traditional selective breeding is subject to all manner of random genetic modifications. In addition, GMO foods are regulated far better than non-GMO foods. Where non-GMO foods may have undetected traces of harmful substances, GMO foods have been extremely extensively tested to ensure that they contain nothing unsafe. The only serious worry about GMO foods is deliberate malicious modifications, however, keep in mind that we are talking about for-profit companies who profit more from healthy customers (who maybe eat a bit more than is healthy), not some evil organization bent on the destruction of the human race. Besides, even deliberately evil modifications would still have to go through the same rigorous FDA mandated safety testing.
Instead of advocating for all of these questionable labels that involve more work and expense for the same quality of product, maybe we should be advocating for "all safe" products. It does not matter so much if the product is organic, all natural, or non-GMO. Nearly all of the concerns with these things come down to safety. So instead of attacking these things, where all evidence indicates that they have little role in whether a product is safe or not, we should be attacking any product that has not been proven safe. What would happen if we held non-GMO foods to the same strict standards we hold GMO foods to (besides making them more expensive)? I can tell you what: We would quit getting contaminated batches of tomatoes in the U.S.. We would not have to worry so much about whether our beef is infected with mad cow disease. While the testing might be more expensive, the total cost would eventually decrease, because we would not keep doing things of questionable value that ultimately increase costs. The best part, though, is that our food, and many other products, would actually be safer, instead of being imaginary safer like our organic, all natural, and non-GMO products.
(Just for the record, I am not opposed to organic farming. Some forms of organic farming can produce higher crop yields in less space, in less time, with less work than industrial farming. I advocate research on combining best methods of both to produce a truly and clearly superior farming method.)
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