Organic Agriculture Highlights of National Ag Census Available
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service has released a two-page highlights publication, Organic Agriculture, with data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture. The publication shows significant growth in organic product sales compared to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, but it also reveals a drop in the number of organic producers over that time period and a drop in the amount of organic acreage. The top five states for organic sales continue to be California, Washington, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Oregon. According to the publication, organic farmers were more likely to report farming as their primary occupation (61% compared with 42% of all U.S. producers) and were slightly younger with an average age of 52.7 years versus 58.1 years for U.S. producers overall.