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Is paying extra money for organic food really worth it?

Some argue that the label "organic" confers real value -- marking healthier food produced without the use of synthetic pesticides and antibiotics. But others claim it's just marketing hype -- that organic food hasn't been proven healthier and that it comes with its own environmental trade-offs, like requiring more land.

The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, when being earth friendly meant wearing earth shoes and eating brown bread. Granted, Americans were focused on other things, like the Kent State shootings, Apollo 13, the invention of fiber optics and the Beatles' last album.

Forty years later, the Pope is promoting environmentalism as a pathway to peace. Words like "biodegradable," "ecosphere" and "ozone" have entered our common lexicon. Recycling has come to our curbs and eating locally grown food is trendier than Chinese-character tattoos.

A 40th anniversary calls for a celebration -- and this is Earth Day's big year -- so pop the bubbly, send a bouquet of flowers or partake in one of the other sustainable activities below, remembering not only to live green on April 22, but every day of the year.

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Asked whether organic is marketing hype, the audience in attendance at the Intelligence Squared April 13th debate in New York City, voted against the claim, 69% to 21% in favor of it. The remaining 10% were undecided by the end of the evening.

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(04-15) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- Obama administration officials Wednesday outlined a broad array of efforts to elevate organic and local farming to a prominence never seen before at the sprawling U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The shift is raising eyebrows among conventional growers and promising federal support to a food movement that began in Northern California and was considered heretical only a few years ago.

Despite fundamental differences in what they represent, there are occasional calls to allow the use of genetic engineering  (which produces genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs) within the USDA National Organic Program. GMO varieties are currently most widespread in corn, soybean, canola and cotton crops, in dairy production, and in minor ingredients, such as dairy cultures, used in food processing, but new products are being introduced and commercialized.

Here are 10 essential points that I believe show why GMOs are incompatible with organic production.

What is organic? A certified organic label from the U.S. Department of Agriculture means the product was grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or genetically modified ingredients. It also means it was grown in an environmentally sustainable way, says Derek Przybylo, 27, of Ann Arbor, a researcher at the University of Michigan's Center for Sustainable Systems. Organic milk, meat and eggs come from animals given no antibiotics or growth hormones. There are also different degrees in which a food can be organic.

When I first heard about April Davila's quest to live without Monsanto for a month, I thought she was doing something noble in a public setting. But would it really be that hard? As a locavore, I pride myself on purchasing my produce from farmer's markets, so couldn't she just do the same? When we decided to meet, I soon realized that my arrogant assumptions had enough hot air to heat a compost bin.

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In this interview, CEO and Chairman of Rodale, Inc. Maria Rodale takes you inside her new book, Organic Manifesto, and explains why she demands organic--and why you should, too.

Temple Grandin is an animal scientist whose work designing cattle pens and corrals revolutionized slaughterhouses in the 1970s and '80s. Today, she estimates that half of the cattle in the United States and Canada are handled in equipment she has designed. Grandin, 62, is also autistic and lectures tirelessly at conferences across the country telling her life story and advocating early therapies for the disorder. She lives in Fort Collins, Colo., where she is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.