If
you are questioning your next move in your business, thinking of starting a
new/different ag business or just use stats to guide your work/research: Here
is a summary of 2008 organic stats that may be useful to you:
Organic Statistics
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/1860/organic-demand-is-growing-faster-than-supply
by: Jill Richardson
Tue Jun 09, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PDT
|
The
USDA recently released a report on emerging issues in the
U.S. organic industry. A major finding was that demand for organics is
outpacing supply. Two-thirds of Americans purchase organics at least
occasionally and 28% at least weekly. In the past, you may have had to go to
a natural foods store to find organics, but now you can find them at
Wal-Mart. Organic sales QUINTUPLED since 1997, growing from $3.6 billion to
$21.1 billion in 2008. In 2008, organics were equal to 3% of U.S. food sales.
Organic
sales may have quintupled, but between 1997 and 2005, organic acreage in the
U.S. only doubled. Just to give you an idea of how American agriculture is
keeping up with that demand, consider these stats from the 2007 Census of
Agriculture: Organic
Farms: 18,211 Organic
Farm Sales: $1,709,111,000 Organic
Cropland: 1,288,088 acres (While
obviously a very small percent of land is organic, the numbers differ from
food to food... 5% of vegetable acres are organic, as are 2.5% of fruit and
nut acreage, 0.5% of pasture, and 0.2% of corn and soybeans.) So it's
no wonder why 44% of organic handlers reported a shortage of organic
ingredients or products in 2004... we're just not producing enough! To solve
the supply problem, we're getting more and more organics from overseas. As
the report notes, the USDA is working to fix the supply program by providing
incentives for farmers to convert more land to organic. You may remember the
recent announcement of $50 million in conservation grant funding (under the
EQIP program) for farmers converting to organic production... that's part of
what they are doing to increase our organic production. Another
nice detail is that government spending on organics has gone up five-fold
between 2002 and 2008. See below for more numbers and facts about organics... |
Which
States Have the Most Organics (Measured
in organic sales as of 2007) Interestingly,
a chart compared organic adoption of a number of different fruits and
vegetables, and there's a pretty big disparity from crop to crop. In 2005,
nearly 6% of carrots were organic (by acreage), compared with about 3.5% of
apples, 2.5% of grapes, 2% of nuts, 2% of tomatoes, % of citrus, and 0.5% of
potatoes. (All numbers here are estimates from viewing a graph.) Another
chart shows organic adoption for grains, noting that adoption is highest for
grains with "food uses." Topping the list were flax and then dry
peas/lentils, each with about 3% of acres as organic. The rest of the grains
listed are about 1% organic or less. They are (in order from most to least):
oats, barley, rice, peanuts, hay, rye, wheat, sunflowers, soybeans, corn, cotton.
Shortages
in Organics
Percent
of handlers reporting a critical shortage Organics
from Foreign Countries Together
these 5 countries constitute half of total foreign organic farmers/handlers
in 2007. The USDA lacks accurate data on organic imports, but they estimate
that between $1.0-$1.5 billion in organics were imported to the U.S. in 2002
(a number that has gone up "substantially" since then). Our
reliance on foreign countries is not only a result of U.S. farmers' slowness
to adopt organic practices and to achieve certification. The report notes
that organic farming practices can be labor intensive and foreign countries
often have cheaper labor than the U.S. Dairy:
Some Good News
Soy:
Why Don't We Grow It Organically? Bang
For Your Buck
Organic
price premium as a percent of conventional price, 2005 |
Organic
Statistics | 7 comments
Vicki Morrone
303 Natural Resources Bldg
C.S. Mott Group
Dept of CARRS
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-3542/517-282-3557 (cell)
www.MichiganOrganic.msu.edu for
information on organic and sustaianable farming and news & events