i'm jill jones with s p n and in this episode of market we asked the question what really is organic we're here at the university of minnesota where we're going to meet with organics expert jim riddle and maybe he c farm and then was raising produce down in the window in an area organic produce help start the farmer's market there and then worked as an organic inspector for twenty years and served a five year term on the u s d a national are going to standards board and now for the last six years work for the university of minnesota doing organic outreach work so so you really do know what you're talking about well let's hope so ok and so now for the thirty two billion dollar question what really is organic yeah well that was the sale of organic foods last year in the u s so there's a lot of people seeking it out and organic foods are essentially grown in healthy soil you know soils that haven't had synthetic fertilizers or pesticides applied no genetic engineering which is a big concern these days and the foods haven't been irradiated but it's more what the farmers do to help promote a healthy environment past so keeping pollinators on their farms planting clover as cover crops using compost you know in green manure crops for fertility just keeping the plants and the animals healthy so what are the pesticides what does does it what's it doing to  says are in our bodies when we're we're taking in those pests well the only matter the well so sure there's the president's cancer panel findings that were released a couple years ago but the evidence just continues to mount the more research is done the more benefits we're finding so we know we're getting a health benefit by not taking in the chemicals and with organic produce but is the nutrition content any different the trends of the research certainly are positive  one ten years study done by the university of california davis looking at conventional tomatoes and organic tomatoes finding that the levels of antioxidants increased about twice as much wild ninety seven percent crease in and i occidental levels with the organic practices and was really interesting is over time using the organic practices those levels kept going up whereas with conventional those levels of the nutrients just stayed flat they didn't increase because you're not building the health of the soil so you had mentioned the the clover as a ground cover as one of the techniques of organic farmers she isn't and how does that affect the soil yeah well  means it fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere and puts that into the soil so the bed of clover can be tilled under and then you don't have to purchase nitrogen fertilizer and vegetables can be grown on that side next year and rotate back and forth so one of the sayings of organic is feed the soil not the plants that a healthy soil makes healthy plants healthy animals healthy people right right then you are asking about livestock and yat to be certified organic for dairy or beef the animals have to eat all or again it feeds so better than i fed my children event but they don't receive any hormones no antibiotics and no g m o of course but also if they're grazing animals they have to be on ask your significant part of the time at least one hundred twenty days a year research has shown that feeding animals pasture and forage leads to healthier meat and milk  then for humans to consume so let's say your are again a producer and you're having just this horrible year with pastor just taking over you just lose your crop here it's always a challenge farming is a challenge a matter how you do it  with organic you usually have more diversity so some things are going to have a good year or the things might struggle but there's quite a few approved pesticides that are allowed in organic and you know based on natural formulations need oil or by reith room but also things like row covers to protect the fragile crops from flea beetles or insect pests but that crop rotation is another one of the fundamental practices that really helps break the past cycles so jim you don't mind switching gears a little bit here what's a g m o and why does it matter what is that all about yeah well g m o stands for genetically modified organisms so these are crops that have had their d n a changed so they have d n a from totally different kingdoms from bacteria put into a corn plant for instance and research in europe has shown that these novel proteins are causing liver problems kidney failure reproduction problems so when we're supporting organic crop farmer that's using a non g m o seed we're really propelling that movement to ask for more clear understanding of what we're eating and what's well sure i mean certainly buying from farmers that you know interest and then looking for that  label your passion for what you do really shows in your expertise and we're really grateful that you had us out here today to share what you're doing well thanks and mean it it's exciting to see the interest and it certainly taste better right exactly thanks so