Байгалийн цэвэр бүтээгдэхүүн

• Under construction...

In recent years there has been a rise in the popularity of the phrase "байгалийн цэвэр бүтээгдэхүүн" – "pure product of nature" – on Mongolian industrially-processed food products.

Some points of discussion relevant to this phenomenon:

1. There is no current equivalent to the term "organic" in Mongolian. The term "байгалийн цэвэр бүтээгдэхүүн" has approximately the same implications as "natural foods", but is not related to any official criteria.

2. The label is always found on factory-processed foods. As such the meaning is derived from, but diverges from, the term as used by rural Mongolians to describe AARUUL, SHIMIIN ARXI, meat, local herbal teas, etc. Whereas a product like "natural" AARUUL is derived directly from raw milk, made by hand following traditional methods, usually outdoors, and left to dry in the sun and wind, and can therefore be said to be an organic part of a "natural" landscape in which the producer is an actor, the industrial "natural" product is inevitably sterilized, processed by machine in the city, and packaged in plastic. In this context it is significant that "natural" refers only to the product inputs, and not to the production process, actor, or site.

3. (ISO) food standards and conceptions of "purity" (see Dunn2005). What we are witnessing is not simply a marketing ploy, but a shift in language that contributes to a conception of the "natural" as related to distinct and potentially discrete places, actions, and elements, as opposed to an integral whole that encompasses complete processes extending all the way to in situ consumption.

Sample "natural" products:

• Vitoil margarine
• Seabuckthorn juice
• etc.

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