Farmers will harvest 3.1 million acres of U.S. Certified Organic land, an increase of 7% over 2018. The West and High Plains regions saw the largest jump in organic harvested field crop acres this year.
Overall organic acreage, which includes pasture and rangeland along with organic crop area, will reach 8.3 million acres this year. 18,155 U.S. farm operations are now certified compliant with the USDA National Organic Program standards, a 3% increase from 2018.
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Ryan Koory, director of economics at Mercaris, said in a press release: “Organic field crop production has faced some challenges this year, with problematic weather cutting into this year’s organic corn and soybean harvest. However, the industry overall remains on a robust growth trend, and with better weather in 2020, the industry will likely see even more growth in the year to come. With the addition of 517 certified organic operations this year, it is clear that the U.S. organic sector remains promising, despite the unsteady state of the U.S. agricultural industry overall.”Kellee James, co-founder and CEO of Mercaris, added: “Reliable analysis about the organic landscape is critical for the entire sector and we hope to add a new perspective with our Organic Farm Heat Map. At Mercaris, our goal is to provide cutting-edge information to stakeholders, giving them the analysis that has long been available in other agricultural sectors.”
