SUPERMARKET labelling is becoming ever more fanciful. Current examples include a “free-range sandwich” and “happy eggs.”

Most bottled water is “natural” with one variety proclaiming it is “drawn from organic land”.

You can buy a chicken, a free-range chicken or an organic chicken. Some meat and veg is organic, most is not.

This misuse of the term “organic” is now so widespread that few people know what it actually means.

When I was taught chemistry, the subject was divided into organic – the chemistry of carbon, and inorganic – the chemistry of nearly everything else.

Plants and animals, including ourselves, are carbon-based life forms. Our tissues are grouped together, “organised” into heart, muscle, liver, etc. Likewise with plant roots, stem and leaves. It is disingenuous to describe only some plants or animals as organic. They are all.

Food producers who minimise the use of pesticides and antibiotics as part of their pursuit of quality deserve a premium for their products.

Just bear in mind that the banned pesticide DDT is organic. Pure water is not.

Robin Audaer, Moreby, York.