People often use the word natural when they want to say that something is good.

Natural food. Natural medicine. Natural ingredients.

Artificial is often used to mean the opposite.

Artificial chemicals. Artificial flavors. Artificial organisms.

The assumption is simple:

Natural things are safe. Artificial things are dangerous.

But is this true?

Nature Is Trying to Kill You

That might sound dramatic, but nature produces many dangerous things.

Poison ivy is natural.

Venom from a rattlesnake is natural.

Deadly mushrooms are natural.

Bacteria that cause disease are natural.

A hurricane is natural.

Cancer is also natural. Cancer occurs when cells in an organism begin growing and dividing in ways that harm the organism. Nothing artificial has to be added for cancer to develop.

Natural selection does not make organisms safe for humans. It helps organisms survive and reproduce.

A poisonous plant might produce a toxin because the toxin prevents an animal from eating it. This is good for the plant. It is not good for the animal.

Nature is not good or evil. Nature is a system.

Artificial Things Can Also Be Dangerous

This does not mean that artificial things are automatically safe.

Humans can create dangerous chemicals, weapons, pollutants, and technologies.

An artificial compound might remain in the environment for a long time. A machine might injure someone. A new medicine might have side effects that were not discovered during testing.

Artificial things can create risks that would not have existed naturally.

The problem is not that artificial things are always dangerous. The problem is that humans can make mistakes.

Sometimes we do not understand the full effects of what we create. Sometimes a product solves one problem while creating another.

A pesticide might protect a crop but harm beneficial insects.

A medicine might cure a disease but produce serious side effects.

A plastic container might preserve food but create pollution after it is thrown away.

The technology might be good at doing its job while still causing problems somewhere else.

What Does Natural Mean?

The definition of natural can be confusing.

Humans are part of nature. Humans build things using materials found in nature. Does that make everything humans create natural?

A bird builds a nest.

A beaver builds a dam.

A human builds a house.

At what point does building become artificial?

Consider some questions:

Is a selectively bred dog natural?

Is corn that has been bred by humans for hundreds of years natural?

Is a plant produced through hybrid breeding natural?

Is a plant changed by exposing its seeds to radiation natural?

Is insulin produced by genetically modified bacteria natural?

Is a vitamin made in a factory different from the same vitamin found in an orange?

There is a gradient between natural and artificial. There is not always a clear line.

Corn is a good example. Humans have changed corn through generations of selection and breeding. Modern corn looks very different from its wild ancestors. The breeding process did not require modern genetic engineering, but the plant was still changed by people.

Calling the corn natural does not tell us how much humans changed it.

Chemicals Are Not Automatically Bad

The word chemical also scares people.

Everything is made of chemicals.

Water is a chemical.

Oxygen is a chemical.

Sugar is a chemical.

The toxins produced by plants are chemicals.

The compounds in medicine are chemicals.

A chemical is not safe or dangerous because it has a complicated name. Its effects depend on the compound, the amount, how someone is exposed to it, and how long the exposure lasts.

Water is necessary for life, but too much water can kill a person.

Salt is needed by the body, but too much salt can cause health problems.

A dangerous compound might be harmless at a very low dose. A useful compound might be dangerous at a very high dose.

The question should not be, “Is this a chemical?”

The question should be, “What does this chemical do?”

Natural and Artificial Versions

Sometimes an artificial product is created to copy something found in nature.

Insulin is naturally produced by the human body. People with diabetes may not produce enough insulin or may not use it properly.

Scientists can genetically modify microorganisms so that they produce human insulin. The insulin is then collected and used as medicine.

The production system involves biotechnology. The final insulin performs the same biological job as insulin produced inside the body.

Is the insulin natural or artificial?

It is produced through an artificial process, but it copies a natural human protein.

The more useful questions are:

Does it work?

Is it safe?

How pure is it?

What are its side effects?

Can people afford it?

Calling it natural or artificial does not answer any of these questions.

Natural Products Can Be Safer

There are cases where a natural product may be safer or better.

A natural material might break down more easily in the environment. A crop that naturally resists a disease might require fewer pesticides. A food with fewer processing steps might contain fewer unnecessary additives.

Traditional practices can also contain knowledge developed over many generations.

However, being traditional does not prove that something is safe. People used dangerous medicines and agricultural practices for hundreds of years before understanding their effects.

History gives us information, but it does not remove the need to examine evidence.

Artificial Products Can Be Safer

Artificial products can sometimes be designed to remove a natural danger.

Pasteurization uses heat to kill harmful microorganisms in food.

Water-treatment systems remove pathogens and pollutants.

Synthetic medicines can provide controlled doses that are more predictable than the amount found in a plant.

A naturally occurring compound might be mixed with hundreds of other compounds inside an organism. Producing the useful compound separately can make the dose more consistent.

Artificial does not necessarily mean that something is less safe. It may mean that people have attempted to control how it is produced and used.

Of course, attempting to control something does not mean that the control will always work.

That is why testing and monitoring are important.

Look at the Whole System

Instead of asking whether something is natural or artificial, we can rate it using three categories:

Good for People: Does it improve human health and avoid harming people?

Good for Planet: Does it protect biodiversity, habitat, and the ability of living systems to continue?

Good for Profit: Does it solve a useful problem and create value?

We also have to examine the technology at different scales.

A natural pesticide might be safe for a person eating a small amount of food but harmful to workers exposed to concentrated doses.

An artificial fertilizer might increase the amount of food produced but create pollution when it enters rivers.

A synthetic medicine might save lives but be too expensive for most people to use.

A technology can be good in one category and bad in another.

Known Knowns and Unknown Unknowns

New technologies create another problem.

We know some of their effects. There are also effects we have not discovered.

This is especially important when something is released into the environment. A medicine can sometimes be stopped if problems appear. An organism that reproduces may be more difficult to remove.

But natural products also have unknowns.

A plant-based supplement might contain compounds that have not been carefully studied. The amount of each compound may change depending on where the plant grew, when it was harvested, and how it was processed.

Something does not become predictable simply because it came from nature.

Both natural and artificial products can contain known benefits, known risks, and unknown risks.

Closing Thoughts

Natural does not mean safe.

Artificial does not mean dangerous.

These words describe where something came from or how it was made. They do not tell us what it does.

A poisonous mushroom does not become safe because it grew naturally.

A medicine does not become dangerous because it was produced in a laboratory.

We should judge products and technologies by their effects.

Are they good for people?

Are they good for the planet?

Do they create useful value?

What happens after one year?

What happens after twenty years?

Who receives the benefits?

Who carries the risks?

The world is more complicated than natural good and artificial bad.

That makes decisions harder, but it also makes them better.

Did you learn something? Did we get something wrong? Leave a comment below.