Current EU strategies on bioeconomy, biotechnology, and biodiversity, focus on various aspects of organisms and organic matter—such as biological resources, biomass, or bioproducts. These policies require a comprehensive and precise categorization of these resources and products. This presentation aims to analyze whether EU policies are relevant from this perspective. It distinguishes between different concepts that are implemented in EU strategies to refer to organisms and organic matter based on different criteria. It assesses whether the current categorization helps the EU to improve sustainability. Showing that this is not the case with several examples, it recommends more comprehensive and precise categorizations, highlighting the need to recognize the multifaceted aspects of organisms and organic matter. It argues for more inspiration from the concepts used in the ecological sciences. The paper also advocates for a unified EU' Organisms and Ecosystems Strategy, which would harmonize existing policies.