From the brains behind brains on, this is the Moment of Um.

Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom.

I'm in the supermarket, shopping for the ingredients I need to make my award-winning chili surprise tater-tot casserole. I'll let you in on a little secret. The surprise is

a layer of cottage cheese right underneath the tater tots. Nobody expects it, but everyone loves it.

Anyway, sometimes when I'm at the supermarket, I get a little overwhelmed by all the different

options. Do I get red, white, or yellow onions? Should I get pinto beans or black beans? And do I need

organic tomatoes? What does organic mean anyway? My friend Dallas was

wondering the same thing. Hi, I'm Dallas from Vancouver, Washington. And my question is,

what makes food organic?

I would say that organic food is grown and made in a way that's healthy for people, animals, and the planet.

Hello, I'm Chris Shriner. I'm the chief executive officer at Oregon TILTH. Our job is to help bring big changes to the food system, and we work

with universities and the government and other organizations to help raise money and support for

organic farming and food. Farmers who grow organic food don't use chemicals that could harm the environment, like certain

pesticides or fertilizers. The pesticide is a, usually it's a chemical that farmers spray to control

pests. That could be insects or diseases or weeds. While it's important to understand what

practices organic farmers don't use, it's also important to understand the practices they do use.

So they use natural ways to keep plants and soil healthy. And many of these practices have been used for hundreds of years,

and they include things like crop rotation,

which switch what they grow in each field from year to year,

and they use natural fertilizers that come from animals and plants and break down. Organic farmers focus on having healthy soil.

That's soil that can hold a lot of life and a lot of water and air. And they also raise happy

animals. So organic farms treat animals really well. Organic practices are really good for the soil. And

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