To steelman this argument (to the extent that I can): we can in fact attribute a great deal of harm to highly processed ingredients, while there are a number of plants and animals humans have lived with and eaten for millenia, and we've identified the natural products that are poisonous. Weed is one of the plants that humans have coexisted with and consumed for millenia, and societies with high weed consumption don't appear to be significantly sicker than ones that don't.

(I can't think of a way to steelman around the fact that there are many toxic plant and animal substances, and some highly processed ingredients are completely harmless)

And water comes from burning fossil fuels too, but I doubt that water would be good for you. Ibuprofen comes from the bark of tree IIRC, but that pill is a lot better than the soup you’d have to eat to get not nearly the same effect. Everything is natural. I really hate that argument.

> Ibuprofen comes from the bark of tree IIRC

This is salicylic acid, in a number of tree barks but most abundantly in white willow.

The medication form is aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid.

In moments when I’m not speechless, I usually just say “and so does Mercury and Uranium“.

Those are minerals, not plants. A better counterpart would be nightshade and castor plant oil seeds.

"So are sharks and volcanoes..."