With growing consumer awareness and demand for organic food, Stanford Dining has become one of the pioneers in United States to incorporate organic and sustainable dining programs. Organic food, grown without the use of genetic engineering, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other unnatural farming procedures, is gaining in popularity and availability on campus.

A few years ago, Stanford made an agreement with a cooperative of 17 farms in the central coast region of California, an area home to a range of organic farms, farmer's markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects, research on organic production and other alternative programs. With the agreement came the challenge to change misconceptions about organic food and raise awareness about it.

"The Community Garden is definitely to educate students about sustenance and organic farming," says freshman Martin Duncan, who is in charge of the community garden at Florence Moore Hall. After being asked whether he prefers organic to regular food, he voted in favor of organic.

"It tastes better," Duncan reasons. But he is not satisfied with the selection of the organic food in the dining hall and wishes there were more available.

In general, students think that the organic food is healthier, but when it comes to expansion, some hesitate to vote for it because of concerns about a resulting increase in cost.

Freshman Nikhil Kamat prefers organic food to regular but does not want it to be expanded. He acknowledges that non-organic food is commercially dominated by big industries advocating a genetically modified monoculture. But he points out that organic food is generally expensive, and the expansion would mean a rise in meal prices.

"The meal plans are already very expensive," he says.

Stanford Dining is also aware of both the benefit of the organic food and the costs associated with it. The official Stanford Dining Webs ite says that it is constantly increasing organic produce purchases at the residential dining locations, and it negotiates with local farmers to keep the costs down while still providing high quality organic produce.

"We are continuing to increase our purchasing in this area. We purchase our organic produce when it is in season," says Rafi Taherian, executive director for Stanford Dining.

"By purchasing items when they are in season, the difference in price between organic and conventional items is not significant. We also try to purchase our items locally, which cuts transportation and shipping costs," he adds.

However, Taherian emphasizes that conventional produce should not be compared to organic, as the two are significantly different in regards to taste, texture, water content and overall quality. Taherian also notes that the ingredients used in preparing meals in the dining halls are organic whenever possible but that not everything that contains organic ingredients is labeled. "The 'organic' items labeled as such are completely organic, including the ingredients," Taherian says.

Currently, 25 percent of the food purchased by Stanford Dining is organic, according to Taherian. Approximately 25 to 30 percent of the proteins are free-range or non-hormone fed. All of the burgers are made with grass-fed patties from Marin Sun Farms, and 100 percent of the whole and rotisserie chickens are organic and free-range from Petaluma Poultry. Lamb legs are also organic and free-range.

In response to questions about the health benefits of organic versus non-organic food, Taherian declines to comment. He does note, however, that Dining is striving to be sensitive to student demands.

"We have definitely seen an increase in demand from students in regards to organic options. We purchase these organic items whenever possible and hope to increase the amount of our purchasing in this area," he says.

In addition to these existing programs, Stanford Dining has recently started a composting program at Wilbur which delivers food waste to local farms to be used as compost, and its Web site also boasts other efforts to reduce food waste and the use of disposable products such as paper plates.