Organic Production Continues To Grow Nationwide

Organic agriculture continues to grow nationwide.

"California, as you would expect, is still the big, big state," said Catherine Greene with USDA's Economic Research Service. "That's where we grow most of our conventional fruits and vegetables and that's where we grow most of our organic fruits and vegetables."

Greene recently spoke at the annual Agricultural Outlook Forum.

"Washington is number two in terms of total amount of sales, Pennsylvania is now in third place in sales of organic commodities in the United States. It grew nine-fold between 2012 and 2017."

Michigan comes in at number four with North Carolina rounding out the top five.

"No southern state has shown up in the top ten or the top-12 until these last couple of years, until this 2017 data. So, to some degree, I'm taking that as a measure of increased interest and increased production in states beyond the traditional organic states."

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