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Farmers doubled the nation's organic crop acreage in the 1990s,
and production of organic eggs and milk increased even more to meet
rising consumer demand, the government says. The amount of certified
organic cropland grew from 403,000 acres in 1992 to 850,000 in 1997.
The number of organic laying hens jumped from 43,981 to 537,826
during the same period, a time when public concern about bacterial
contamination of eggs was on the rise. The number of organic milk
cows grew from 2,265 to 12,897. 'Organic farming became one of the
fastest growing segments of U.S. agriculture during the 1990s and
producers, exporters and retailers are still struggling to meet
consumer demand,' according to a study by the Agriculture Department's
Economic Research Service.
Organic farming is still a very small part of U.S. agriculture,
however. About 0.2 percent of U.S. cropland was certified organic
in 1997, compared with 1.5 percent in Europe, where farmers are
offered government aid to convert to organic agriculture.
The amount of organic pasture and rangeland actually declined
from 1992 to 1997, from 532,000 acres to 496,000 acres. Economists
say organic production of meat and poultry lagged during the decade
because they could not be labeled as organic until February 1999.
One can also click
here for the recently proposed federal organic certification
program.
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