There are many different ways to farm in order to produce all the food you see on store shelves. Learn more »

When an adult ladybug is hungry, they can eat up to 5,000 aphids. Honeybees are also great helpers on the farm. Learn more »

Each part of a plant has a different job to do to help a plant grow and live. Can you guess the parts? Learn more »

What Does "Organic Farming" Mean?
Going to the grocery store can be a fun and exciting adventure. There is food lining the shelves from places located all over the world. This means that there are also many people farming all over the world just as you are reading this. Some of these farmers may face difficulties growing their foods. Certain bugs like to eat the plants they grow before they get to our groceries. They also may have too many weeds around, preventing the yummy plants from growing. Another problem they may have is that there is not enough 'food' in the soil for plants to eat.

There are many different ways to farm in order to produce the many different foods we all like to eat and to combat farming difficulties such as too many hungry bugs. In the United States, many farmers use "conventional farming" practices to grow our food. This means that they use man-made (synthetic) chemicals and fertilizers to grow their food, or crops. Just like us, these plants need food to grow. However, with conventional farming all of these chemicals and fertilizers to do get completely 'eaten' up by the growing plants. Over time, these chemicals and fertilizers build up in the soil. Since mother nature does not make these chemicals naturally, they are not good to have building up in our soils and water, and are not healthy for people and animals to eat. Spraying plants to kill bugs puts chemicals directly on the foods we like to eat.

Organic farmers follow mother nature's way of growing plants. Instead of using man-made fertilizers to feed their plants, like conventional farmers do, they use plant food such as compost. Compost is made when food scraps, such as orange and banana peels, rot and break down to turn into nutrient rich soil. This soil is then mixed into the ground before seeds are planted in the spring. The parts of old plants help new plants grow. Organic farmers also rotate their crops. Just like us, different plants like to eat different 'foods'. If one plant, such as corn, was grown in the same location year after year, there would be no 'food' left for the next generation of corn to eat. Moving the corn to a new location would allow another vegetable to come in and 'eat' the food that the corn did not like. By the time the corn was moved back to its first location, the food it liked would have had a chance to build back up again.

When organic farmers must use insecticides (these kill bad bugs), they are approved by the United States Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program, and they are often made out of parts of other plants, such as flower oils and extracts. Organic farmers also use beneficial bugs, such as lady bugs, to eat the bad bugs.

Kids Love Bugs
Did you know that thousands of bugs may live on a single farm? Some of these bugs help farmers, and some of them make growing organic crops very difficult. 'Beneficial insects', such as lady bugs, help farmers by eating bad bugs for lunch and dinner. Other bugs, like bees and butterflies, help carry pollen from one plant to another across the farm. Pollen is needed for plants to reproduce and make more vegetables, fruits and seeds each year. Sometimes, farmers will grow the plants that beneficial insects like. This makes them want to live on the farm and help the crops grow by eating the bad bugs.

Two of our favorite bugs are ladybugs and honeybees. Ladybugs really like to eat aphids, mealybugs and scales. When an adult ladybug is hungry, they can eat up to 5,000 aphids. Honeybees are also great helpers on the farm. They help pollinate the fields as they are gathering their food. When they land on another plant, pollen that has collected on their legs comes off onto another plant, helping it make more seeds for the next planting.

What Do Plants Need to Grow?
Water
Until a seed sprouts, it is sleeping, or hibernating. Once a seed takes in a little water, its outer coat splits open and the seed wakes up. Next, when the baby plant emerges, it begins to take oxygen from the soil. Water is very important to the new seedling because it carries nutrients from the soil up through the roots and into the rest of the plant so that it can continue to grow.

Comfortable Temperature
Seeds will not shed their coat and begin to grown unless it is just the right temperature. You would not want to take your coat off on a cold winter night. That is why most seeds do not start growing on their own outside until the spring comes. Some seeds can be started inside in the winter where they have a warm house, or greenhouse, as a shelter. Other seeds, such as different lettuces, like to shed their coats when it is a little cooler.

Healthy, Roomy Soil
When a seed sheds its coat, the root is the first thing to sprout out, turning the seed into a seedling. These roots feed the rest of the plant and act as an anchor. Plants need a strong anchor so that they do not blow over in the wind or wash away with the rain. More roots also allow them to gather more food for the stems and leaves.

Air and Sunlight
Photosynthesis is a process that lets plants use sunlight and nutrients in the soil to make their own food and grow. In this process, the leaves of the plant change energy from the sun into food that it uses to grow. During this process they also take in Carbon Dioxide and expel (breathe out) Oxygen. This is opposite of how we breath. We take in Oxygen and expel Carbon Dioxide.

The 'Body Parts' of a Plant
Each part of a plant has a different job to do to help a plant grow and live. Check out some of their main parts and think how they might be similar to your body parts.

Roots: Roots absorb water and minerals from the soil. They also help the plant stay anchored to the ground. Our feet can also be thought of as roots because they keep us anchored to the ground, especially on a windy day.

Stems: Stems carry the water and nutrients given to them by the roots to the leaves. They also hold the leaves up to the sun and sky. Your arms and legs can be thought of to be like stems.

Leaves: These carry out the process of photosynthesis by collecting energy from the sun and turning it into food for the plant. If you stand with your arms up to the sky, you can think of your hand and fingers as leaves, collecting the sun's energy.

Flowers: Seeds from the plant are made in the flower. Flower are pretty and colorful so that they will attract pollinating insects, such as honeybees and butterflies.

Fruit: You may often find seeds in the fruit you eat, such as in a watermelon or the inside of an apple. The fruit around these seeds help protect them until they are ready to grow into a new plant

Seed: The seed is the 'life-support package' that will produce a new baby plant.

Think of some of the things you like to eat and see if you can guess what part of the plant they come from.

Radishes, carrots, parsnips, turnips and beets - ROOTS Celery, asparagus, leeks, onions, and rhubarb - STEMS Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and parsley - LEAVES Broccoli, artichokes, and cauliflower - FLOWERS Peaches, pumpkins, tomatoes, and apples - FRUIT Rice, corn, beans, peas, and wheat - SEEDS

We can give you reasons until apples grow out of our ears. But why don't you hear it from our customers.

Start eating better next week.

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