Keep Drinking Organic Milk: It’s Making a Difference

Organic farming is better for the environment than conventional farming: that much is already well known. But no one has actually put a number on just how many pounds of destructive chemical fertilizers and pesticides have been avoided thanks to a percentage of consumers choosing to buy organic food: until now.

The Organic Center, a non-profit based in Colorado, created a calculator that helped them determine that 40 million pounds of fertilizer was avoided in 2008 thanks to organic milk production in the U.S. The organization hopes that its Microsoft Excel-based calculator will be used by consumers, farmers and food companies to get an idea of how big an impact switching to organic can have.

From GreenBiz.com:

The 761,000 acres of organic feed cropland or organic pasture also dodged the use of 758,000 pounds of pesticides. Cows also given 1.7 million fewer drug treatments, including antibiotics and hormones.

There were roughly 120,000 milking cows on organic dairy farms in the U.S. last year, according to the Organic Center.

“This calculator gives us the means to uniformly measure the extent to which organic dairy operations prevent toxic materials from entering our air, water, soil, and in some cases, our food and drinking water,” Charles Benbrook, the Organic Center’s chief scientist, said in a statement.

Curious about how the calculator works? Check out the Organic Center’s report, “Shade of Green: Quantifying the Benefits of Organic Dairy Production.”

Of course, the chemical companies will probably figure out some way to spin this. Like the oil companies, they’re getting scared about the fact that public opinion is turning against them – so scared, they sent Michelle Obama a letter berating her for not using pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the White Houste veggie and herb garden. Amazing.

Link [GreenBiz.com]
Photo credit: Flickr User Royalty-Free Image Collection

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