Drilling down on organic ag, loss of grassland

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is posting a series of “drilldowns” on the Census of Agriculture. In its latest, on organic and local ag, NSAC says the West Coast has the largest concentration of organic farms; more than 4,000 of the 16,525 such farms nationwide. California is No 1 with 3,000 farms.

NSAC said there was a sharp decline from 2007-12 in pasture and grazing land that could grow crops without excessive erosion, dropping to 12.8 million acres from 35.8 million acres in 2007. It said “most of these acres were likely lost to crop production as commodity prices peaked and ethanol demand increased.”

Next week, the coalition will write about beginning farmers.

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