 Hi, I'm Hannah Corman, a graduate from a master's program in earth sciences at Stanford University, and I'd like to talk to you about what the word organic really means. You know, it's hard to be a consumer these days because there are so many terms in the grocery store, all-natural, multigrain, and some of these don't really mean much. But organic means something very specific. It's a term that's defined and certified by the government through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now the term organic doesn't always mean that a food is healthy, especially if the food is highly processed. Just because a cookie is organic, it doesn't mean it's any better for us. But let's take a minute to look at what organic does mean. For fruits and vegetables, organic means there are no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, no genetically engineered crops, and no sewage sludge used in the production. Now pesticides and fertilizers are used to help us grow large amounts of food, but they have serious environmental and health impacts. Fertilizers and pesticides are made from fossil fuels and using them adds greenhouse gases to the environment and increases global warming. And even though we think of extra nutrients as a good thing, overusing fertilizers pollutes our waterways and harms fish and other marine life. Overusing pesticides can also be harmful by producing super bugs or pests who could survive any amount of pesticide killer that you use. For meat and milk, there's another important reason to buy organic because organic meat and milk come from animals that didn't receive any unnecessary antibiotics or growth hormones. The amount of antibiotics we use on livestock today can create antibiotic resistant bacteria that can make humans really sick in ways that we can't treat. Growth hormones are allowed in the U.S., but are banned in the European Union, Canada, and other countries. And lastly, farm workers who are regularly exposed to pesticides can face big health threats, including poisoning, cancer, birth defects, and learning disabilities. Now this is not meant to scare you away from fruits and vegetables. It's just to say that if you can afford it and if you can find it, you may want to choose organic for any one of these reasons. There will be no pesticide residues and you'll help save the planet too.