Organic food is defined as food that has been grown without what?

Organic food is defined as food that has been grown without chemical pesticides. This means that during the cultivation process, synthetic pesticides that are commonly used in conventional farming are avoided, which aligns with the principles of organic farming aimed at promoting environmental health and biodiversity.

In organic farming, natural pest management techniques are employed, such as using beneficial insects, crop rotation, and organic-approved pest control methods, which minimize harm to the ecosystem while still protecting crops. This prohibition on synthetic pesticides is key to maintaining the integrity of organic produce, ensuring that it is as free from synthetic chemical residues as possible.

The other options, while also important in the discussion of organic food, do not completely encapsulate the full definition of organic practices. For example, organic standards indeed limit the use of chemical fertilizers and genetic modification, but the direct definition pinpoints the prohibition of chemical pesticides as a fundamental characteristic of organic food production. Moreover, while organic livestock practices restrict the use of animal by-products, this is more relevant to meat and dairy products than to the general definition of organic food.