{"id":1271,"date":"2010-02-12T16:54:50","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T16:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2012-09-26T16:55:33","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T16:55:33","slug":"new-organic-production-survey-results-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/02\/12\/new-organic-production-survey-results-available\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW ORGANIC PRODUCTION SURVEY RESULTS AVAILABLE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND \u2013 The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has released the results of the 2008 Organic Production Survey.<br \/>\n\u201cThis, the first-ever in-depth survey of organic farming in the United States, came in direct response to the growing interest in organics among consumers, farmers, businesses and others,\u201d said Barbara Rater, director of the Maryland Field Office of USDA\u2019s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). \u201cThis was an opportunity for organic producers to share their voices and help ensure the continued growth and sustainability of organic farming in the United States.\u201d<br \/>\nThe 2008 Organic Production Survey counted 14,540 organic farms in the United States, comprising 4.1 million acres of land.\u00a0 In Maryland, NASS counted 129 organic farms during 2008. The 129 Maryland farms include USDA certified organic farms and farms that were exempt from certification. Farms following the USDA\u2019s National Organic Program Standards with less than $5,000 in sales (i.e. exempt organic farms) are allowed to market their products as organic without becoming certified.\u00a0 These exempt farms can use the term \u201corganic\u201d but cannot use the \u201cUSDA Organic\u201d seal.<br \/>\nMaryland organic farms are smaller, on average, than all Maryland farms.\u00a0 Organic farms averaged 71.5 acres of land, compared to 160 acres for all farms.\u00a0 Maryland organic sales totaled $10.4 million, including $4.9 million in crop sales and $5.5 million in sales of livestock, poultry and their products.\u00a0 Thirty-five percent of these farms have been in organic agricultural production for less than 10 years.<br \/>\nApproximately 18 percent of Maryland organic sales were direct to consumers, via farms stands, farmers\u2019 markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA\u2019s) and other arrangements compared to the national average of 7 percent.<br \/>\nTotal organic production expenses were $7.7 million for Maryland, an average of $60,217 per farm in 2008. Hired and contract labor was the largest organic expense category. Maryland farmers reported using a variety of conservation and environmental practices on their organic certified and exempt farms in 2008.\u00a0 Among the most popular were the use of green or animal manure and the planting and maintenance of buffer strips.<br \/>\nMore Maryland and National statistics are available <a title=\"online\" href=\"http:\/\/www.agcensus.usda.gov\">online<\/a>.\u00a0 For more information, call the NASS Maryland Field Office at (800) 675-0295.<br \/>\n###<\/p>\n<p><!-- End Article --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND \u2013 The U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has released the results of the 2008 Organic Production Survey. \u201cThis, the first-ever in-depth survey of organic farming in the United States, came in direct response to the growing interest in organics among consumers, farmers, businesses and others,\u201d said Barbara Rater, director<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/02\/12\/new-organic-production-survey-results-available\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1272,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions\/1272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}