Is there a difference between "Natural" and "Organic"?

There are a lot of different uses of the words "natural" and "organic".

In general, the word "organic" means to come from a living organism.

Some people use "organic" to refer to products that are from living organisms.  For example, natural essential oils have been referred to as being "organic" since they come from living plants.

There are some though who make an even further distinction between organic and natural products.  They would say that organic products, such as oils, etc.. are those secreted or emanated, by living organisms.  For example, according to this definition, honeydew is organic because it is excreted by aphids.  Royal or queen jelly is secreted by bees to feed to other larvae and bees.

The finer breakdown of "natural" then would refer to products that are made of living organisms (and other things, like stones, which are considered "Natural" as opposed to concrete).  For example, most essential oils are made by boiling or otherwise heating plant parts to get the natural oils out of the parts of the plants.

So, "organic" products basically are things made by organisms and "natural" products are those things made of or from organisms by this definition.

When it comes to using treatments in pest management, say in bee hives to treat for mites.  Some people would say that using mineral oil mixed with wintergreen oil as a fog in a hive is an "organic" treatment.  However, by the definitions I explained above, they really would be "natural" treatments as the oils are made of organisms, not by organisms.

Feeding bees pollen patties made with real pollen would be organic because pollen is produced "by" flowers.

In regards to practices like I mentioned at the beginning, an organic practice would be to emulate or mimic what living organisms "do".  "Natural"  would be the motivation or source for the action.

An example here of organic practice would be bees making and using propolis to seal up cracks, crevices, etc... inside the hive. 

A "natural" practice would be doing the waggle dance to show fellow bees where to find a nectar source.  This as opposed to a bee somehow being trained to make some sound then pull out a map.  That would definitely not be natural.

Is it a life or death situation if people mix up the uses of the terms?  Not really.  However, when it comes to scientific discussion and trying to communicate exactly what is going on, it helps to be as specific as possible.  Words have meaning for a reason, thus we have different words that mean different things for a reason.  Kind of an oversimplification, I know.

Anyway, just thought I'd put this out here.