Student Project Resources

Are organic foods healthier than conventional foods?

See Mrs. Hauprich for the password for this resource.

If you like working with nature, animals, or food production, then you would be interested in this career cluster of agriculture, food, and natural resources. There are a great many choices such as farming, orchard manager, resource conservation and developer, or food scientist. The wheel on this page illustrates the division of this cluster into seven pathways. Hover over each pathway and a box with more details will come up. Then click on each of the seven to learn more about that pathway. Click in the center to learn what knowledge and skills you would need.

The Department of Agriculture grades and inspects agricultural products to assure quality and safety. Eggs, meat, poultry, grain, fruits, and vegetables are graded and certified by licensed USDA inspectors. Buyers for grocery stores are also certified, and producers and processors are audited to make sure they conform to sanitation and safety standards. Egg inspectors make random visits to supermarkets, restaurants, and food warehouses to check conformity to regulations. The quality assurance program for eggs is voluntary but helps reduce salmonella risk. Organic produce is checked to see if it meets organic standards.

If you are not sure what organic farmers do, take an online field trip to an organic farm to find out. Follow Jack Greene and his classmates as they visit Jack's family's farm, which is an organic one. Find out why the Greene farm is special. Mr. Greene explains the earth-friendly methods that he uses to grow healthy food without harming the earth or the animals. This site includes pictures of the farm. You will learn words like ecosystem and compost and discover that farms have to pass yearly inspections to be certified organic.

Regulations for organic foods are very strict. The organic logo in the European Union is an important labelling tool that makes it easier for the consumer to identify foods that have been certified to be organic. This is especially important for prepackaged foods, as they could contain many ingredients that a consumer might not be able to identify. The label assures the consumer of the product’s organic status. You can access the organic labelling rules as well as the logo on this site.

The Campaign for Healthier Eating believes in the saying, you are what you eat. You can learn all about eating healthier by exploring the various areas of this site. You will find tips on the best foods to eat, learn about GMOs and GM foods, find information on organic foods, and you can access healthy recipes. You will also find a shopping guide that incorporates the types of foods that are healthiest and do not contain GMOs.

In a comprehensive meta-analysis of more than 300 studies, researchers at Washington State University quantified the differences between organic and conventional plant-based foods in terms of nutritional value. The photonutrients found in plant-based foods are essential to human health, and organic crops contain significantly higher levels of these antioxidants. In addition, organic fruits, vegetables, and grains contain less pesticide residue. Find out how the study team helped make sure the data they were using was reliable.

Pesticides and fertilizers, once a boon to farmers who used them to increase the amount of food they could grow, are now having negative effects on land, crops, and people. Read about the dangers posed by chemical pesticides and fertilzers and learn how and why organic farming is growing in popularity. Includes a video that shows how organic farming is practiced.

or a snapshot of organic agriculture in the United States, refer to this briefing from the USDA's Economic Research Service. A short overview of the U.S. organic farm sector describes how organic farming has a presence throughout all of the fifty states, the difference between small- and large-farm production, and trends in organic agriculture. Other topics of interest include a chart, which details organic production from 1997 through 2005, and a map of U.S. organic farming operations throughout the United States.

Fifty years after Rachel Carson so poetically raised the alarm about the harm pesticides and fertilizers were doing to ecosystems, organic food has moved from the extreme fringes to mainstream practice for many people. Organic farming uses traditional, natural methods to produce food, and that includes the feed that goes into meat products. Organic farmers want to minimize their effect on the environment around them, too. Learn about organic standards and eco-labeling as well as the benefits of organic food. When people question the cost, it’s good to compare it against the expense of poor health.