New data coming out of the recently released 2012 U.S. Census reveals there are 16,525 organic farms, either certified or exempt, in the U.S.

That is roughly 0.7 percent of all farms. Wisconsin ranks a distant number 2 among states in organic farms, behind California.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture. It’s been conducted since 1840 and is collected once every 5 years.

Concentration of production on organic farms continues to be lower than farms overall. One and a half percent of the largest organic farms account for 25 percent of all organic sales, whereas just two-tenths of 1 percent of all farms account for 25 percent of all farm sales.

Likewise, 10 percent of organic farms account for 75 percent of total sales, while for agriculture as a whole just 6 percent account for 75 percent of total sales.

Organic sales are growing, but accounted for just 0.8 percent of the total value of U.S. agricultural production.

Organic farmers reported $3.12 billion in sales in 2012, up from $1.7 billion in 2007. Total organic product sales by farms have increased by 82 percent since 2007, from $1.76 billion in 2007 to $3.1 billion in 2012.

Organic products overall were a $35 billion industry in the U.S. in 2013.

While there are comparisons between the 2007 Census data on organic agriculture with that from the 2012 Census, there are major differences between the two on the definition of organic farms.

In 2008, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) completed the first ever comprehensive Organic Production Survey as a follow-on to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, in order to collect additional information on organic farms, including specific production challenges, production costs, availability of organic inputs, participation in federal crop insurance programs, and how organic producers are marketing their products, including selling through local and regional food systems.

“Unfortunately, much of the data collected on organic farmers in the 2007 Census is not comparable to similar data collected in the 2012 Census, due to how organic is defined, or not defined, in each survey,” reports the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). “Both the 2012 Census and the 2008 Organic Production Survey define organic in the same way, commodities produced according to USDA National Organic Program standards; however, these two survey instruments used slightly different methodology and although data from these two surveys provide a stronger comparison than between the 2012 and 2007 Census, the comparison is not as strong as other data consistently collected in the Census.”

NSAC and its allies in the organic sector have therefore been urging NASS to conduct a second Organic Production Survey as a follow-on survey to the 2012 Census, which would allow reliable comparison between data from the 2008 Organic Production Survey and would show the most complete and accurate picture of what is happening within the organic sector.

“It would answer the question of whether the number of certified organic farms is actually increasing or decreasing, whether production costs are keeping pace with organic price premiums, and how long farmland is staying in organic production,” NSAC states.

NASS is proposing a more limited Organic Survey for 2014, in partnership with the Risk Management Agency (RMA), to collect data on organic production specifically to allow RMA to develop organic price elections for the federal crop insurance program.

While NSAC is supportive of these efforts, it nonetheless believes that NASS must also conduct a more comprehensive Organic Production Survey as a follow-on to the 2012 Census to provide defensible trend data on the organic sector.

Looking at just the 2012 Census itself, the highest concentration of organic farms is in the west, with the Midwest and northeast coming in second. Wisconsin is a distant second to California among states, as noted.

For the most part, organic sales are concentrated in most of the same states with the greatest number of organic farms, with California and the Pacific Northwest leading the nation; however, Florida, Texas, and Colorado replace Ohio, Vermont and Maine on the list of the top 10 states with the highest value of sales of certified or exempt organic commodities, due to the large concentration of high value crops produced in those states. Wisconsin ranks fourth in highest sales of organically produced commodities.

Participation in cost-share programs eyed

Unsurprisingly, reports NSAC, all of the top 10 states in either number of organic farms or organic sales had strong rates of participation in either one or both of the USDA organic cost-share certification programs, the National Organic Certification Cost Share Program (NOCCSP) or the Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA) Organic Certification Cost-Share Program.

These programs help defray the costs of organic certification for producers and handlers of organic products. Producers and handlers can receive up to 75 percent of their annual certification costs up to a maximum payment of $750 per year.

The top 10 states for number of organic farms and total organic sales also accounted for 70 percent or more of the funds allocated for NOCCSP or AMA.

Because annual organic certification costs can be prohibitive, particularly for small and mid-sized farmers, the assistance provided through AMA and NOCCSP are essential in helping farmers become organic operations and maintain their organic status, according to NSAC.

The 2014 Farm Bill provides $11.5 million annually in mandatory funding for NOCCSP, more than double the just more than $5 million available annually for the program from the 2008 Farm Bill.

Organic Farmers profiled

Organic farms display more gender and age diversity than that seen on non-organic farms, and tend to be operated by younger farmers. According to the 2012 Census, women make up about 16 percent of the 1,821,039 primary farm operators in the U.S. and 18 percent of the 16,525 primary farm operators for organic farms.

Additionally, while the average age of primary farm operators as a whole is 58 years old, the average age of primary organic farm operators is 53 years old.

The 2012 Census shows that the majority of organic farmers have been on their present farm 10 or more years, with the remainder on their farm nine or fewer years.

Farming is the primary occupation for 1,010 of the organic farmers, but not for additional 332 of them.

America, hungry for organic

A new survey shows organic sales jumped nearly 12 percent in 2013 to a new record.

Sales of organic products nationwide rose to $35.1 billion last year, up 11.5 percent from the previous year’s $31.5 billion and the fastest growth rate in 6 years, according to the latest survey on the organic industry from the Organic Trade Association (OTA).

And the hunger for organic products is not expected to ease any time soon. The OTA survey projects that growth rates during the next 2 years will at least keep pace with the 2013 clip and even slightly exceed it.

A niche industry in the huge food sector just a decade ago, consumer purchases of organic food first broke through the $30 billion mark in 2012 and now account for more than 4 percent of the $760 billion annual food sales in the U.S.

More telling, according to OTA, the growth rate of organic food sales, which has averaged almost 10 percent every year since 2010, has dwarfed the average annual growth of just more than 3 percent in total food sales during that same period.

A product breakdown of the organic food sector shows that the fruit and vegetable category continue to lead the sector with $11.6 billion in sales, up 15 percent.

With more than 10 percent of the fruits and vegetables sold in the U.S. now organic, the $1.5 billion in new sales of organic fruits and vegetable represented 46 percent of the organic sector’s $3.3 billion in new dollars.

There also is a lingering confusion among consumers about just what organic means, highlights OTA. The message of the organic can be lost next to the presence of natural products and the long debate around genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Source - http://www.theprairiestar.com/