U.S. Organic Production, Markets, Consumers, and Policy, 2000-21

Andrea Carlson, Catherine Greene, Sharon Raszap Skorbiansky, Claudia Hitaj, Kim Ha, Michel Cavigelli, Peyton Ferrier and William McBride

No 333551, USDA Miscellaneous from United States Department of Agriculture

Abstract: Organic agriculture can support global and domestic food needs, expand consumer food choices, enhance farm profitability, and increase agricultural sustainability. Public policy has played a key role in the development of the organic industry in the United States, beginning with the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) subsequent publication of national organic rules in 2000. While U.S. organic acreage was still only 1 percent of U.S. farmland in 2019, organic farm sales accounted for about 3 percent of U.S. farm receipts. Consumer demand for organically produced products has driven an expansion in U.S. organic production since 2000. The premiums paid by consumers give farmers the opportunity to recover the cost of production and improve their financial well-being. This report describes U.S. organic policy initiatives since 2000 and examines the importance of investment in research on organic practices. The report also investigates key components of organic supply chains—including production, certification, farm-level costs and returns, wholesale markets, and industry structure—along with the evolving characteristics of organic food consumers and retail markets.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Consumer/Household Economics; Crop Production/Industries; Demand and Price Analysis; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Health Economics and Policy; Industrial Organization; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Livestock Production/Industries; Marketing; Production Economics; Public Economics; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 115
Date: 2023-03-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:usdami:333551

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.333551

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