Whitetail and pesticides - rural and suburban deer hunting

[Desk Jockey]

A friends wife doesn't want his family eating suburban deer meat due to the belief that they are probably browsing landscaping of one form or another and picking up pesticides. I can't say I disagree but I would also think it is possible deer in rural areas are getting exposure from farm activity - either sprayed crops or run off. Seems like unless you are hunting something pretty far inthe back country you are risking some sort of exposure.

I can't imagine it would be any worse than a domestically raised cow.

Any body have any thoughts or info to share?

 

[mcseal2]

The chemicals available to homeowners and agriculture are heavily regulated. I wouldn't worry about either the meat from deer or beef.

 

[Forestryguy]

Are Crops Contributing to the Whitetail Decline? - North American Whitetail

Here is an article I saw earlier this year. Pesticides are everywhere and affect us all. They say that there has been so much Glyophsate used that we breath it in every day. About the only way to almost guarantee the deer are not consuming pesticides is to find a very large organic farm to hunt. But, even then there are some chemicals that they can use. It has been proven that deer, and cattle, prefer non-GMO crops. The organic farmers in my area are constantly fighting higher deer numbers compared to their "traditional" farming neighbors.

 

[Transition Wild]

I always wondered the same thing. How organic is it if they are eating farm crops and plants that are being sprayed with chemicals? But, it has to be better than a lot of store bought meat, in my opinion.

 

[69ChrisCraft01]

Are Crops Contributing to the Whitetail Decline? - North American Whitetail

Here is an article I saw earlier this year. Pesticides are everywhere and affect us all. They say that there has been so much Glyophsate used that we breath it in every day. About the only way to almost guarantee the deer are not consuming pesticides is to find a very large organic farm to hunt. But, even then there are some chemicals that they can use. It has been proven that deer, and cattle, prefer non-GMO crops. The organic farmers in my area are constantly fighting higher deer numbers compared to their "traditional" farming neighbors.

Do you have the research proving that deer/cattle prefer organic crops? I'd like to review it if you know where it originated from.

I've read an article regarding bird preference on corn gmo vs organic which was flawed. Non-GMO is much more subject to ear damage via worms which exposes the ear when the husk draws back and the ear protrudes....making for easy access to birds. (Not to mention they get a fat juicy ear worm for protein)

I'd like to see the data/method used in the ruminant studies.


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[vanish]

Whitetail decline ... lol

 

[freebird134]

While I would agree that there isn't much to worry about if you are hunting the back country, you have to recognize how far animals travel in the course of a year.

So many of the remote, backcountry critters we pursue move right down with the farms, pesticides, etc during winter. The reality is, no wild game is likely to be "organic" by definition. Given that the lions share of crops in this country are GMO and use herbicides/pesticides, the chances of even the most remotely killed deer or elk are likely to have ingested food that is sprayed and/or GMO.

Personally, I eat it still. But, I also won't be surprised when it's linked to some adverse effect.


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[Sodbuster]

I have seen deer grazing across new corn and soybean fields the day after they were sprayed with several different kinds of herbicides.

 

[standard_lengthy]

Most of the chemicals applied to crops get stored in the fat reserves of the deer that consume it. Deer fat tastes gamey anyhow so most of it probably gets trimmed off. NFG.