"You are what you eat." What you put in your mouth — and feed your family — can have profound effects on personal health, as well as the health of the planet.

What is organic food?
The overarching principle behind organic food is that it has been produced in a "natural" way and doesn't deplete the earth's soil or water. In years past, organic farms have traditionally been small, family run operations, so it was hard to find organic food without spending a lot of time at farmer's markets or joining an organic food cooperative. But now, given the increasing number of families that want to "go organic," the big-name grocery chains are offering more and more organic food.

In the United States, the term "organic" is regulated by law. The Department of Agriculture only grants the USDA Organic seal to products that have at least 95-percent organic ingredients, meaning that the food meets a series of requirements to ensure they are produced without chemical pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, additives and genetically modified organisms. In the U.S., be sure to look for the organic seal because claims like "natural," "hormone-free," and "free-range" can be hard to decode and don't necessarily mean that the food meets the strict organic requirements.

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