A recent class-action lawsuit against LaCroix claims that the sparkling-water company has misled consumers by calling its products “natural.” From a certain perspective, it’s a slam-dunk case: Flavored sparkling water does not gush directly from Mother Nature’s teat, and aluminum does not spontaneously form convenient gleaming cylinders so we may drink refrigerated cans of “naturally essenced” LaCroix, popping them open with fingers designed by evolution for
precisely that task.
Of course, this is not what LaCroix means by “natural.” Rather, its label — and the plaintiff’s attraction to it — can be understood only in light of our tendency to conflate “natural” with “goodness.” It’s no coincidence that the word “innocent” also features prominently in LaCroix’s marketing materials and packaging. “Natural” invokes a religious myth, an origin story about pure beginnings. With giant islands of garbage floating in the seas, microplastics polluting the
oceans and human-caused climate change ravaging the globe, it makes sense to be suspicious of human tampering.
Wanton disregard for the natural world affects our health and well-being. Seeking out natural products is about health, yes, but holistic health: physical and spiritual, personal and planetary. Nature becomes a secular stand-in for God, and the word “natural” a synonym for “holy.” “The last stage of a butterfly’s metamorphosis is to fly those beautiful wings,” said Nick Caporella, CEO of LaCroix’s parent company, National Beverage Corp., invoking a poetic
and almost metaphysical metaphor. “We are in sync with that all-natural butterfly.”
This religious regard for nature, then, is not about the undespoiled planet but about our quest for a purer life. Understanding human activity as incompatible with “natural” could easily set us on a misanthropic slippery slope to banning “natural” from virtually all food labels. After all, agriculture and food preparation are human arts — “art” being the root of “artificial,” as in LaCroix’s statement that “there are no sugars or artificial ingredients contained in, nor added to, these
extracted flavors.” Most consumers agree with LaCroix that a reasonable definition of what’s natural should allow for a variety of processing techniques. (“Techne,” it’s worth recalling, is Greek for “art.”)
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