At the Table – USDA 2007 Ag Census

At the beginning of this month, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) came out with their 2007 Ag Census. According to the USDA’s site, “The Census of Agriculture, taken every five years, is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. The Census looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures, and many other areas.”

For this week’s At the Table, I thought I’d give you a few tidbits that we found in the 739-page document.

To start, the good and even great news! Direct food sales, food sold directly to consumers through such places as farmers markets, rose 49% to $1.2 billion in 2007 (up from $812 million in 2002). The number of farms selling directly to consumers also rose 17%, from 116,733 to 136,817 farms.

And US farmers are selling more fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruit sales totaled $18.6 billion in 2007, up 35%, while vegetable sales rose 15% to $14.7 billion.

But, remember, these are only numbers for farms and fruit/vegetable sales. The USDA can’t do a breakdown on sustainable food – most likely because there isn’t a set definition for that type of food. But what this does show us is that people are buying more fruits and vegetables, which is a wonderful sign, and it’s also an indicator that sales of local food are increasing at a dramatic rate (49 percent in five years!) because direct farm sales will more than likely be sold locally at a farmers market or farm stand.

Other exciting news is that in five years, organic food sales from organic farms more than tripled! In 2002, organic farms sales were $393 million, but it 2007, they rose to $1.7 billion. This is not only an indicator of an increase if food sales, it also tells us that consumers are becoming educated enough on the issues surrounding food to be switching their buying habits.

Now to some bad news…. Only 35% of all farms reported no off-farm income over the past five years. What that means is that 65% of all farmers have to work another job to make ends meet. And sadder than that is that only 42% of farmers reported net cash gains in 2007 – the rest of the farmers had net losses, meaning they lost money. And out of that 42% who had cash gains, 68% earned less than $24,999. That’s $30,000 less than the national median income.

More bad news – the average age of a farmer is now 57.1, up from 55.3 years old in 2002. That means we’re going to lose most of our farmers in the next 20 or so years. What can we do about that? We need programs to entice younger people into farming. We need to provide scholarships and educational opportunities to get young people back on the land. We need apprenticeship programs so younger farmers can work with seasoned farmers to learn proper ways of farming. And many people are concerned that the price of real estate makes it extremely hard for younger people to get into farming – we need to figure out a way to get land for people who want to farm, whatever their age.

So what do we need to do? Support your local farmer. Tell your kids what an honorable job farming is so they appreciate the men and women who provide our food. And if you’re affected by the recession and are on a budget, think about planting your own garden this spring. You just might end up being a farmer yourself one day!

Thanks to the Crossroads Resource Center for compiling some of this information!

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide.)