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drleekimmd-blog · 12 years ago

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Organic Water? Absolutely!

When the bottled water company, Illanllyr SOURCE, began touting that their water was “Organic” because it is pumped from beneath certified organic fields in west Wales in the UK, the internet erupted with anger, laughter, and outright disgust. Hemi Weingarten said that claims of Organic Water are just companies, “telling tall tales.” Allison Aubrey and Jessica Goldstein in their NPR article argue that water claimed as Organic is just “Marketing Buzzwords” and not “Science.” Jen Quraishi goes as far as calling this, “Greenwashing” and contends that “organic-ness” can’t simply “rub off on water.”

All of these arguments against Illanllyr SOURCE’s use of the word “Organic” to describe their product are hard to refute. Clearly, their water is not “Organic,” in neither the Chemical Sense nor the Agricultural Sense, simply because its source is below an organic farm. But the question still remains, can any water be organic? Is there a natural source of water out there somewhere that could honestly be called “Organic”? The answer is yes, but the explanation is not as straightforward as many would claim.

Are water and H2O really synonymous?

First of all, let’s clear up a major misconception about water. Water does not exist on earth in its pure chemical form, H2O, because it is highly unstable – H2O is more of a theoretical concept. This might come as a bit of a surprise, but I assure you, a quick Google search of the phrase, “does pure water, as in H2O, exist?” will leave you with dozens of articles attesting to this fact. To stabilize itself, the H2O molecule absorbs dissolved solids from all around it – this stabilized form of water is what we all know and love. How strong is the stabilizing reaction of H2O? Many scientific studies have shown that absolutely pure H2O can begin to dissolve copper or brass piping in a matter of minutes.

Renowned Ecologist James P. McMahon, in his article “There’s No Such Thing As ‘Pure’ Water,” states that:

“Any process that removes the minerals (dissolved solids) from water will create water that is ‘aggressive’ in that it will seek to replace those minerals.”

Does this sound like something you want to drink? I didn’t think so. But alas, the topic of water is far more complicated than most people believe.

The chemical argument against Organic Water doesn’t hold… umm… water

So, back on the topic of Organic Water, let’s take the traditional scientific argument as to why all water is Not Organic. The scientific argument against “Organic Water” asserts that, in order for something to be “Organic”, or “From Life”, that object must contain the essential ingredient of life: Carbon (C). Most people know that Water, as in H2O, or two atoms of hydrogen (H) joined to one atom of oxygen (O), contains no Carbon (C), and is thus, Inorganic. Case closed? Well, not really.

Because we know that pure H2O doesn’t really exist in nature, this kind of logic is similar to saying that water is Non-Conductive. That’s right, chemically pure water, the molecular state of H2O, cannot conduct electricity! Ultrapure water, the closest thing we have on earth to pure H2O, is used daily to clean our electronics, circuit boards, and computers without fear of electric shock. Why? Because conductivity requires dissolved solids, such as Copper (Cu), and Water, as in H2O, does not contain these essential ingredients, and is thus, non-conductive. So, now that we know that H2O cannot conduct electricity, why don’t you try this experiment at home:

While shouting, “Water cannot conduct electricity,” toss a running hairdryer into the bathtub.

Ok, seriously, please don’t try that. I think you get the point. Cleary, this conversation about the validity of Organic Water can’t be simplified down to using a few elements from the periodic table and checking to see if their letters show up in the word “H2O”. Let’s be honest with ourselves and have this conversation outside of the hypothetical science lab and take it back into reality. The reality is, H2O doesn’t exist in nature without dissolved solids, so why don’t we all agree to just talk about water the way that the average person thinks about it?

Water isn’t science

We, as ordinary people, think of water as more than just an H2O molecule. Water is something that refreshes us on a hot day. Water is something that quenches our thirst after a jog. Water is what flows down over the rocks in those pristine waterfalls we picture when we think of far off exotic places. Water relaxes you while soaking in the steaming hot bathtub. Water conducts electricity. Water can be organic. Yes, water can be organic, but not in the traditional way that we think about it coming from brooks, streams, rivers, or wells.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates the marketing term "Organic" which is intended to mean agricultural products produced without hormones, pesticides, artificial fertilizers or other synthetic additives. Ok, so to oversimplify the legislation of the National Organic Program, let’s review an example. A hypothetical Orange can be certified as Organic if it is grown without prohibited substances. Thus, if grown and handled properly, this Orange would become a USDA Certified Organic Orange, or, in layman’s terms, just an “Organic Orange.”

Packaged foods are considered by the USDA to be “100% Organic” if they are made with 100% organic ingredients. To continue with our example, this “Organic Orange” could be squeezed into orange juice and the manufacturer could then label this juice as, “Organic Orange Juice.” Now, what if someone were able to then filter this Organic Orange Juice and take out the sugars, colors, odors, and taste? What then would you have? What you have is a liquid that is, umm, water, right? Is it water? If it is water, is it Organic Water because it came from an Organic Orange? Ignoring the feasibility of accomplishing this task right now, why don’t we check back through our logic just to see if this could be considered organic water?

Rethinking Organic Water

If water is squeezed from an Organic Orange, could this “water” be considered Organic Water?

According to the chemical argument, this “fruit water” would still be H2O and thus clearly lacks the Carbon molecule needed to qualify as “Chemically Organic,” but, we also know that H2O in nature always contains dissolved solids and this “fruit water” would be no different. Could some of these dissolved solids contain Carbon? According to laboratory testing, Oranges contain more than 18 vitamins and minerals. One of the vitamins in an orange is Vitamin E (tocopherol) which has the molecular formula C29H50O2. Did I read that right? 29 Carbons are in Vitamin E? I think that more than qualifies as “Organic” in the chemical sense. So, it seems that as long as Vitamin E, or some other carbon containing vitamin, is dissolved in the “fruit water”, we can call this water chemically organic. Ok, ok, I know I said that we should put all of this chemistry stuff behind us and I promise that we are done talking about it, but, we haven’t finished talking about Organic Water from the Agricultural perspective.

Jennifer Chait states, in her article “Can You Certify Organic Water?”, that waters containing fruit juice, herbs or other agricultural additives do qualify for certification. Products like Ayala’s Herbal Water are USDA Certified Organic because they add organic herbal essences from fruit to water. Jennifer’s source, Soo Kim, a representative of the USDA’s National Organic Program, told her that "Regardless of whether water is the main or primary ingredient, it’s only the herb that qualifies for organic certification. Therefore, the product could properly be labeled ‘organic’ if it met the requirements for organic crops and handling/processing." Based on this description, the USDA would contend that the organic vitamin and mineral content squeezed from our hypothetical “Organic Orange” qualifies the Water as 100% Organic.

So there you have it. By rethinking the way that we look at water, we find that there has always been a natural source of Organic Water right under our noses. Organic Water, not in the purely chemical sense, not from the dirt, but rather, protected inside of a fruit, like an orange, just waiting to be discovered.

I for one am just excited at the possibility of a water from fruits and/or vegetables and I look forward to experiencing all that it has to offer. A water, made from plants, that retains all of the nutrition of the plant but lacks the sugars, colors, odors and taste would be pretty incredible. And, as a side benefit, I think we can all finally put the “organic water argument” to rest and agree that this juice based water would be truly organic in every sense of the word.

#scientific #studies #organic #juice #water #H2O #usda

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