Most people don’t think about pesticides when they’re choosing meat, but pesticides from animal feed can accumulate in animal organs. Organic meat is produced without the use of harmful pesticides because these are prohibited in the production of organic animal feeds. Both pasture and feed must be produced without the use of harmful pesticides, so you can be sure that by choosing organic, you are skipping the chemicals and only getting the highest quality meat.

Eating organic may quickly reduce our pesticide load

Our diets are one of the primary sources of pesticide exposure, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently found pesticide residues in nearly 50% of foods sampled from domestic and imported sources. The good news is that some studies show eating organic foods can reduce existing levels of pesticides detected in children and adults. Even just choosing organic occasionally can reduce your exposure to some pesticides. Many studies on organic diet interventions have focused on organophosphate pesticides, which are largely used on animal feed crops like corn and soy, while others have looked at a more extensive range of pesticides, including neurotoxins such as neonicotinoids and pyrethroids, and found the same thing: eating organic food can reduce these pesticide loads in the body.

While the studies mentioned above focus on general dietary consumption rather than organic meat in specific, if reducing exposure to pesticides is an important factor in your food choices organic can go a long way in achieving that goal.