WASHINGTON—This spring the U.S. Department of Agriculture will conduct its first in-depth survey of organic farming. The eight-page questionnaires will be mailed to the 20,000 organic farm owners early next month with responses due by mail or Internet by June 17. A report is expected in early 2010.
The USDA survey will include farms in transition to organic, noncertified farms and certified organic farms. Producers will be asked about crops, livestock, marketing, sales figures, fertilizer, fuel, seeds, labor, feed, property taxes and how land is divided among crops and livestock. Also they will be asked about farming practices to control pests and weeds, if they limit tillage and if they use animal or "green" manures.
Organic farming is a small, but growing, part of American agriculture. There are 2.2 million U.S. farms covering 920 million acres. Organic farming accounted for 2.6 million acres in 2007.
