U.S. Certified Organic Acreage and Operations, 2005
California had more certified
operations than any other State, with just over 1,900 operations
in 2005, up 20 percent from the previous year. Wisconsin, Washington,
Iowa, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and
Maine rounded out the top 10. Many of these States have a high
proportion of farms with fruits and vegetables and other specialty
crops. Also, some of these States, particularly in the Northeast,
have relatively little cropland but a large concentration of
market gardeners.
While adoption of organic farming systems showed strong gains
between 1992 and 2005 and the adoption rate remains high, the
overall adoption level is still low—only about 0.5 percent
of all U.S. cropland and 0.5 percent of all U.S. pasture was
certified organic in 2005. Obstacles to adoption by farmers include
high managerial costs and risks of shifting to a new way of farming,
limited awareness of organic farming systems, lack of marketing
and infrastructure, and inability to capture marketing economies.
Still, many U.S. producers are embracing organic farming in order
to lower input costs, conserve nonrenewable resources, capture
high-value markets, and boost farm income.
See more data on organic production
from ERS.
|
