The amount of U.S. acres in organic farmland increased 11 percent in 2016 from 2014 numbers to reach 4.1 million acres, says a report by the data-service company Mercaris. The individual number of organic farms also jumped in that period by 1,000, to 14,979. The increase is largely due to consumer demand and economics, Scott Shander, an economist at Mercaris, told Civil Eats.
California, Montana, Wisconsin, New York and North Dakota led the way on organic acreage. Organic hay/alfalfa, was the most popular organic crop in terms of acreage, followed by wheat, corn and soybeans. And yet according to Shander, 75 percent of the organic soybeans and 25 percent of the organic corn used in the U.S. are imported, since domestic production has not kept up with demand.
“The percentage of acres planted to organic crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and oats remains small compared to conventional crops in the U.S.,” says Civil Eats. Organic corn, for example, only makes up .31 percent of the total corn acres, while organic oats — which account for the highest percentage of an organic crop — represent 3.6 percent of total oat acres. Wheat and soybeans have similarly low percentages at .9 and .2 percent respectively.
As companies like General Mills introduce more organic items to their product lines, Mercaris predicts that the growth in organic acreage will only continue.