Here are a few reasons to buy organic meat from The Healthy Butcher:

Reduce your exposure to pesticides, synthetic chemicals, growth hormones, irradiation and genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

New agricultural chemicals are being introduced every year.  Little is known about their long-term health effects and the effects of combinations of chemicals. But research is showing that our children, because of the size of their bodies, on average receive four times more exposure to cancer-causing pesticides and GMOs than do adults. Many of the chemicals that were once considered safe have been removed from use due to the ill health they have been proven to cause. Organic standards do not allow synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, irradiation or genetically modified organisms; and forbid the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in raising animals for food.

Reduce your Risk of Animal Ailments Passing to You

Evidence indicates that humans may acquire Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a rare disease similar to BSE (a.k.a. Mad Cow Disease), after consuming BSE-contaminated cattle products. BSE has a 10 – 30 year incubation period - so, non-organic meat you eat today may affect you in decades to come.  BSE is only one current problem in the news – more will likely follow. 

Organic Meat Tastes Great

Well-balanced soils, produce strong healthy plants that become nourishment for people and animals.  Many organic foods taste better as true flavours are prevalent.  With meat, feeding an animal all organic products positively effects the taste of the meat. 

Connect to verifiable sources for your food

Certified organic food can be traced back from your plate to the farmer that grows it. 

Support a movement toward smaller farms and more farmers

Industrial agriculture has proven that it is unable, due to the high costs and stress, to inspire people to get into farming. We have lost more than half of our farmers in the last fifty years and the average age of farmers in Canada is 56 years. Farms are getting so large and specialized that farmers can no longer find the equipment and services they need in rural towns. Businesses, schools and churches are closing due to the loss of people and cash flow. This is not an inevitable or irreversible trend. In the USA the number of farms increased in 2001 for the first time in decades. The reason is that consumer demand for organic food has inspired more people to take up farming on smaller parcels of land.   

Celebrate the coming together of science and traditional knowledge

While most farmers have spent the past fifty years being distracted by technological quick fixes for their farms, organic farmers have been doing their own experiments with a blend of traditional wisdom and modern research.  Since most agricultural research, both private and public, relies on corporate funding, not enough formal research has gone into organic farming systems.  By buying organic food, you are convincing organic farmers and researchers that their work is valuable and sustainable.  

Encourage farmers to consider more seriously their own health, the health of their families and the health of their workers

In Canada, a study of mortality in 70,000 Saskatchewan farmers showed a positive association between non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and the number of acres sprayed with herbicides. Farmers know agricultural chemicals are designed to kill and they are becoming increasingly conscious of the negative effects of these chemicals on the broader environment and on human health. They feel, though, that they need to use these chemicals in order to keep their farms viable. The more we buy from local organic farmers, the more we will convince other farmers to make the transition away from the use of synthetic chemicals.  

Organic Meat is Better for the Environment

Organic farms respect water sources by eliminating polluting chemicals and nitrogen leaching, protects and conserves water sources.  Organic farming also replenishes and maintains healthy, fertile topsoil with rich biological matter, which does not erode into waterways. Additionally, unusual varieties of crops and livestock are more likely to be raised organically, which helps to keep the gene pool for food products diversified.

Animal Welfare

Animals raised on organic farms are treated in a more humane way than animals on factory farms who are tightly confined in pens and often never move more than a few feet their whole lives.  Animals on organic farms are given more space and outside exposure and as a result, suffer fewer ailments as those animals in factory farms.

Sources:

2002 Directory of Organics in Canada, produced by the Canadian Organic Growers