With a soubriquet like the Green Mountain State , it ’s meet that Vermont has naturalise a sizable front inorganic agriculture . ALawnStarterreview of information from the USDA record Vermont lead the country for the number of constitutive - certified farms per 100,000 resident . The state had 556 constitutive - certified farms in 2016 , or 89 per 100,000 residents , makingit the land ’s runaway success when liken a state ’s act of organic farms with the state ’s 2016 universe .
In terminal figure of sheer number of organic - certified farms , California is No . 1 . According to the USDA , the Golden State had 2,713 farm in that category in 2016 , or 6.9 per 100,000 resident physician .
Michael Colby , executive director ofRegeneration Vermont , a non-profit-making advocacy group that promotes sustainable husbandry , says that despite those numbers , nonorganic agriculture still dominates the state .
“ More than 80 per centum of Vermont ’s USDA is centered in nonorganicdairying , and the number of organic dairy farms has remained stagnant — around 200 — for many years , ” Colby says . “ As a per centum of the whole dairy industry , organic dairies are uprise , but that ’s alone due to the high rate of established dairies that are go out of business organization . ”
Ben & Jerry’sandCabot Creameryare two of the biggest player in Vermont ’s dairy farm industriousness . Each year , the State Department produces more than $ 500 million Charles Frederick Worth of milk .
dairy farm husbandry rank as the No . 1 economical driver in Vermont ’s organic agriculture sector , but production of organic fruits and vegetables also is popular , Colby say . He assign that , at least in part , to the DoS ’s greater - than - average phone number of small - scale leaf “ dress shop ” yield and vegetable Farmer .
Colby ’s group is pressing for acceptation of a statewide architectural plan that would shift Vermont ’s dairy industriousness entirely to organic .
“ This transition is necessary because of the grave economic , environmental and animal upbeat threats of conventional dairy farming , ” he says . “ This transition would dramatically reduce the number of kine and the land used to grow the GMO - clavus fed to conventional dairy cows , thus justify up land and resources to diversify our agricultural crop and products and , hopefully , arrange an emphasis on local and regional consumption . ”
Based on LawnStarter ’s analysis of USDA and U.S. Census Bureau data from 2016 , here are the 12 states where organic - certified farms are most prevalent ( on a per - person basis ) .
Top Five for Organic-Certified Farms
1. Vermont
2.Maine
3.Iowa
4.Wisconsin
5.North Dakota
The Next 7
The upper Midwest has a strong hold on organic farm .
6. Montana
7. Oregon:461; 11.268. South Dakota:86; 9.949. Minnesota:545; 9.8710. Idaho:166; 9.8611. Washington:677; 9.2912. Nebraska:162; 8.49
This tale originally appeared in the March / April 2019 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
