What exactly does Organic mean?

   It's a buzz word.  You see and hear it everywhere.  Organic fruit, vegetables, cotton, shampoo, pet food, etc.  What exactly does it all mean?  In a nutshell most food used to be relatively organic.  Back several generations you just grew your food or usually you knew the farmer who did.  You didn't have such things as GMOs (genetically modified organisms) or harmful pesticides that we have today.  You just grew and ate clean food.  Unfortunately, that is no longer the case and as demand has required, many farmers have opted to use methods to keep up with the supply and demand without loosing crops to pests and or diseases, hence the strong pesticides and GMO crops.  Most commercial farmers either completely cover their crops in pesticides to prevent bug damage or they buy GMO seed that prevents bugs from eating the crops because the bugs eat the crop and die...hmmm something I want to eat, how about you? You can read more about GMO's here.  Growing an organic garden means not using pesticides or harmful chemicals.  
   So if a person is not using extra stuff (pesticides, chemicals, etc) why does the food cost more?  Because, there are very real pests who will decimate your garden in a flash.  Trust me and read my article here for a good laugh.  An organic gardener has to be on top of it checking the garden daily for signs of pests and garden issues as well as often handpicking bugs/worms...yuck.  And then there is loss, when you don't spray a garden with pesticides or Sevin dust or other junk you loose plants.  Bugs eat them up and ruin your bounty. (I have a long standing fued with cut worms).
    But the good news is that with an organic garden your kids can do this:

Eat straight from the garden without worry.  My 2 y/o's favorite thing to do...garden snacks!  You wouldn't want them doing this if you used Sevin dust or any other commercial pesticide would you?  Me either.