This past Friday, Melania Elsner (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) shopped in the State College Farmers' Market for the first time. She bought apples and said she did not care if they were organic.

Maybe she should.

Organic produce is grown without synthetic or petroleum-based chemicals, instead with natural derivatives in their places, said Kim Tait, owner of Tait Farm Foods, a vendor at the market. Organic produce is grown in soil that undergoes crop rotation at least every three years if it supports annual plants.

"At the core of the philosophy of organic is care of the soil," Tait said.

Additionally, organic meats and dairy products are without antibiotics or growth hormones that can accumulate in students' bodies.

While she did not care if they were organic, at least Elsner can rest assured the apples she bought were grown locally.

"Buying food locally is extremely important for many reasons," Faculty Manager of the Penn State High Tunnel Research and Education Facility (HTREF) Catie Rasmussen said. HREF is a part of the Horticulture Research Farm.

Buying food locally is important because it keeps cash in communities, saves gas that would be burned transporting food from afar and allows relationships between customers and vendors to form, in which customers can ask vendors how their food is made and what goes into it, Rasmussen said.

Additionally, buying food locally is extremely important because local food is fresher and therefore more nutritious than food from afar. The more time food spends being transported on a truck or barge the less nutritious it is, Rasmussen said. She also said local food "simply tastes better!"

College students believe local vendors use less synthetic chemicals and produce healthier products, said Leanne Scott Brown, public relations manager of ARAMARK, a provider of food services that offers organic and natural foods at 200 of the 375 campuses it serves. College students are primarily concerned with whether food is local and secondarily concerned with whether food is organic, as organic food may come from too far away and spend too much time on a truck or barge.

Sales of organic foods on college campuses employing ARAMARK's food services have increased by 20 percent a year over the last five years, Brown said.

Sales of organic foods on Penn State campuses are currently limited to convenience stores, with á la carte and all-you-care-to-eat dining commons serving non-organic foods. Sales of organic foods in convenience stores is possible because the foods, which cost Penn State more, can retail for more than non-organic foods, said Lisa Wandel, Associate Director of Food Services. However, sales of organic foods in all-you-care-to-eat dining commons are not possible because the cost of the foods would drive-up the set all-you-care-to-eat prices, which Food Services does not want to do.

Organic frozen entrees, side dishes, cereals and snack foods are available in campus convenience stores, Wandel said, though every store is not selling every product.

Over the summer -- with some difficulty -- Food Services brought local produce into dining commons through its Farm to College program.

"We had an intern working on our Farm to College program. The roadblocks she ran into were that the farmers were interested in selling to Penn State but didn't have the resources to deliver their products to campus," Wandel said.

"Other issues with buying local is our short season. The time when produce is available locally is summer, when we only have two dining commons open. We also have to be careful not to alienate our other produce companies during these times because we depend on them for produce the rest of the year when local produce is not available," Wandel said.

Whether they eat organic or non-organic, local food or food from afar, students should know that what they eat affects their health.

"You are exactly what you eat. How are you not? Eating well is the best healthcare plan possible," Rasmussen said.