Detailed Organic Farm and Ranch Data Available

USDA's first major national survey of U.S. organic farms was released Feb. 3, 2010, by the agency's Office of Research, Education, and Economics. The survey, which includes 14,540 farms and ranches that cover 4.1 million acres in 50 states, found highlights such as:

• Calendar year 2008 sales totaled $3.16 billion.
• Both average sales and average expenses were roughly 60% higher for organic farms and ranches compared to all farms and ranches.
• Nearly half of sales were local, within 100 miles of an operation.
• About three-fourths of the operators plan to maintain or expand their organic production during the next five years.
• An additional 1,938 operators are working more than 194,000 acres of crop and range lands that are in transition to organic. Selected data for them is included.
• The operations covered in the survey represent about half of the organic farms and ranches initially contacted. The others didn't respond or were excluded for various reasons.

There are 59 tables that break out the data in all kinds of ways at the national and state level.

• 2008 Organic Production Survey; press release.

The original data is available here. You can also request customized data, for a fee, from the National Agricultural Statistics Service's DataLab.