DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding.

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EHRAM: What's cookin good-lookin?

SAFWAN: Not organic food that's for sure.

EHRAM: Cuz we're lazy Americans looking for the easy way out!

SAFWAN: Today we're talking about organic food and its contribution to our society.

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SAFWAN: I'm Safwan Muntasir.

EHRAM: And I'm Ehram Subhan. We are teen volunteers from LAPL's Canoga Park Branch working with ConnectoPod today at the library.

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SAFWAN: So what exactly is organic food?

EHRAM: Well according to the USDA National Organic Program, organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality, and for future generations.

SAFWAN: Basically, organic food is food that have not been tampered with by humans.

EHRAM: Okay so how big of an impact does organic food really have?

SAFWAN: See, according to a 2012 study by Stanford University, the health and nutrition differences between organic food and non-organic food are actually very minute.

EHRAM: Uhm, I don't really agree with that per se, because our food used to, like, if we talk about GMO foods, which is genetically modified food, we have, like, foods such as, like, our little salmons, and say we can farm them, with, by genetically modifying them, and make them like, three times bigger, and, that can, make a big difference, compared to, you know, just a normal-sized salmon; give us a lot of more food.

SAFWAN: Yeah, that gives us, that does give us a lot of food, but like, we're tampering with creatures that are usually a one-ounce creatures, right? What if these salmon, or like what if these animals that we’re genetically modifying, were to get out in nature, that would like, like that would affect their reproduction, and just the course of nature overall.

EHRAM: Well, yeah, that is a good point, our environment is very...very important to us, but, like our, there's a lot of world hunger going on, we have our populations going, like, to the billions. We're already exceeding our normal population from literally...only just...thousands of years ago. And so I think that these GMO foods would really, actually help us. We can obviously grow bigger salmons and everything, and also it can help for economies. Like, that one time in Hawaii with the papaya incident. There was a very, very big papaya virus decades ago, and Hawaii... really dependent on papayas...on their economy; they sold that a lot. So when that virus went out, the economy was struggling; they couldn't sell those anymore. This, with the GM food, zero actually become very invulnerable to the virus, the papaya was actually being able to grow, the farmers stopped having to worry about it, Hawaii's economy came back to the way it was. And now look at us! And almost everything we have is GM foods. It's so much cheaper, there's much more, you can help food deserts. That's a big topic.

SAFWAN: So you said that our population has been increasing, right? And that, so, and also our technology has also been increasing. And we've also seen that our environment is actually getting worse, so the more we genetically modify these foods, or the more pesticides and chemicals we use for these foods, it'll yeah, it's like, we've already seen its effect on nature, so don't you think, that in order to preserve nature and preserve, the like, just the way nature is, we should try to convert to a more organic lifestyle? Because yeah, what we want, our economy to benefit, we want, we want us to benefit, right? We want healthy food, we want less... with starvation, less world starvation, but is that really worth it if we're...if we're...help... if we're helping our economy, by destroying our nature?

EHRAM: I think that with all the technology, we've been just we've been discovering and creating...we can actually...with more food, we have more people, with more people, we have more people who can work, who can get an education who can learn about our environment, who can help our environment, who can...we have water plants out here...they're able to filter out our water, and help preserve more water for us, so then we don't have to just, suck it out of the lakes all the time, although we are doing that a lot. We can fix it later.

SAFWAN: So this pond, you said more humans, more education right? And then they would get better jobs, would understand the environment, and that would eventually be better for our nature, right? But this plan heavily relies on the fact that humans will get a better education, right? So we can't technically be sure, because, like a lot of people are uneducated and homeless, so our...can we really be sure that a majority of the humans will be capable of understanding our environment, and they'll be capable of helping our nature? Our economy would be benefiting based on the ruins of our natures. Is that really worth it?

EHRAM: Well again, my name is Ehram Subhan, and I, I agree with what you're saying I. I understand what you're saying. I do think that environment needs a lot of help, in fact without all the technological advancements and all these, you know, easier way of making food we would have probably have a lower population; wouldn't even have to worry about these, but I think now it's too late, and that we just need to improve upon ourselves instead of trying to go back to the way we were because clearly, it's too late now.

SAFWAN: My name is Safwan Muntasir, and I understand your views on non-organic foods, and I see how, I see on, I see what you're saying about how it will help our population, but I'm still convinced that non-organic foods aren't really the way to help our economy. I think that there are better ways that we can help our economy and our population without harming our environment. You heard our opinions on organic food. What’s your opinion on organic food, and should our world rely more on organic food or non-organic food?

EHRAM: Why should we solve this?

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SAFWAN: We want to thank Marcia the librarian at the Canoga Park Branch and also the California Library Association for sponsoring our project.

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SAFWAN:Thank you for listening.

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[END OF RECORDING]

DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding.