BOULDER, Colo. — Organic food is often touted for the lack of toxic pesticides and fertilizers used in its production. Now a Colorado-based nonprofit has created a calculator that estimates the amount of chemicals avoided through organic dairy farming in the U.S.

According to the Organic Center, organic milk production in the U.S. avoided some 40 million pounds of fertilizer in 2008. 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.

The group hopes the Microsoft Excel-based calculator will be used by consumers, farmers and food companies to estimate the environmental impacts avoided by shifting dairy cows from conventional to organic management practices. It can estimate the impacts from fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides and animal drugs for a gallon of milk, a single milking cow or a herd, and by region.

The use of artificial hormones or antibiotics and chemical nitrogen fertilizer is prohibited in organic dairy farming. Toxic or persistent chemicals in pasture maintenance or feed production is also forbidden.

"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.

The methodologies behind the design of the calculator are found in the Organic Center's report, "Shade of Green: Quantifying the Benefits of Organic Dairy Production."

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