Our farm is what I would call "Pesticide Free" because we don't have the capital for organic certification or all organic feeds (nor do we produce enough now, to make it a sensible investment) . The animals that do get feed are mostly the chickens & horses. We will be giving the momma cows some grain over winter to keep their weight up because they are pregnant, but the babies are always going to be grass fed/grass finished.
Also, our neighbour sprays. A lot. I have no control over what he chooses to do on his own land, and have no plans to ask him to stop, since he was here long before us. So we're going to have some pesticide drift over onto our property. Drives me crazy, but again, really nothing I can do about it. That would also prevent us from ever achieving organic certification if we wanted it.
However, I can say I'm never going to go buy something that isn't organic to spray on my plants. In fact it would have to be a pretty bad infestation for me to go buy anything all. Sacrificing a small portion of the harvest to our insects does not irk me in the least. I try to promote healthy predator populations, and if we do have a problem there are many very simple home-made organic solutions. Things like spraying milk on mildewing squash, which work very well.
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