Should I Feed My Baby Organic Food?

Should I be feeding my kid organic food (vs. non-organic food)? The organic-vs.-non-organic debate has been around for a while, and I honestly have not spent a lot of time on the subject and actual science behind it. My husband and I generally buy and eat non-organic. It saves money. But now we have a 13-month-old, and it has brought this question back to me full-swing. So many toddler food options are organic, and the subscription toddler food services we like are organic (and expensive). We don’t like them because they’re organic; we like them because it’s a good balance of tasty and healthy options. The organic part is good, I guess, but is it really? When we aren’t using food services or store-bought toddler foods/snacks, we’re feeding our kid the food we buy, which is typically non-organic. We’re also debating if the cow’s milk we feed him should be organic.
—Tired of Expensive Food

There are many reasons that people buy organic food. One is health — the idea that consuming organic produce, especially, is better for your health than conventional produce. It is absolutely true in the data that consumption of organic food is correlated with better health outcomes. However: we have the standard correlation-isn’t-causality refrain. Because organic food is more expensive, people who consume organic tend to be wealthier and have more of other resources. It is challenging (read: impossible) to separate out organic food from other differences.

Does that mean there are no health differences? No. It means that we cannot tell from the data. It is unlikely that any health differences are extremely large, or they would be more obvious in what we see. But the evidence isn’t good enough to detect small effects in any direction.

You asked about milk specifically. For that, there is a secondary concern, which is about antibiotic use. Antibiotics are widely used in dairy cows (and other animals) to promote growth and for other reasons. This leads to worries about antibiotic resistance and about antibiotics being passed through in the milk. A similar argument is made about pesticides. Again, it is correct that organic milk has less of this issue, but we do not have anything concrete in the data that shows large health impacts from conventional products.

Another claim is that organic food is better for the environment. This is a contentious issue — I found this article a helpful summary. Environmental impacts are multifaceted. Pesticides and chemicals used in conventional agriculture can be extremely problematic in soil runoff. But organic farming can also use more land and water per output, which has its own impacts. Moreover, to the extent that your concern is greenhouse gases, the location of food production relative to you is much more important than the organic-versus-not distinction. Buying food from the conventional farm down the street has a lower carbon footprint than buying organic food from across the country. This is not to say that pesticides are good, but simply that the environmental impact is complicated.

Some people also think organic food tastes better. Maybe! This is in the eye of the beholder.

All of this is to say: there are considerations on various sides about organic versus not. Any benefits should be weighed, at an individual level, against the added costs. This is true for adult food and for child food. There is no particular reason to do things differently for your child than you do for yourself.