The “World of Organic Agriculture” report from FiBL/IFOAM covering data through 2016 was just released at organic-world.net. This annual report provides estimates of the global area of organic agriculture (by country, and crop where available), the number of organic producers, and market size and trends, along with various special topics. In 2016, there were an […]

Fire blight is a challenging disease for all apple and pear growers, and even moreso for organic growers with a limited toolbox. Recent advances in organic fire blight control are described in the new eXtension publication “Organic fire blight management in the western U.S.“, written by faculty in Oregon, Washington and California who have been […]

A new report on U.S. organic product trade was released by the Organic Trade Association. It uses data drawn from the USDA GATS database, which has HS codes for over 140 organic products. Imports of organic corn and soybeans remain large and show the need to increase domestic production.  Apples is the largest organic export […]

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) just released the preliminary findings from its annual Organic Industry Survey. They found that retail organic food sales in the U.S. reached a new high of $43 billion in 2016, up 8.4% from the previous year and exceeding the 0.6% growth rate for the overall food market. Organic food sales […]

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) recently hosted a webinar describing the various information products they have available to the public about organic food products. They currently collect data on 120 organic specialty crops.  These include reports about price and movement (volume of sales) at the shipping point (e.g. fruit warehouse), wholesale terminal market (they […]

A recent cost of production study of organic blueberries in eastern Washington shows that it will take 9-10 years to pay back all the initial establishment costs for the planting. A grower will need to received over $1.60 per pound on a fresh berry yield of 17,850 pounds per acre at full production to break […]

Researchers from Washington State University and Oregon State University just published their findings that hulless oats may provide organic poultry producers with an alternative to corn and wheat.  Shortages if organic feed grains, and consequently very high prices, have been a chronic challenge for organic livestock production in the U.S.Hulless oats are easier to certify […]

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is now publishing a regular report that compares national prices for a range of organic foods with their conventional counterparts.  The report dated April 25, 2017, compares advertised prices at major retail supermarkets across the country drawing on over 300,000 different ads for produce alone. Premiums for organic ‘Gala’ […]

Soil health is a hot topic in agriculture right now. But it is a lot more than hot air, as two new WSU Extension publications show. Several on-farm studies in recent years have looked at the effect of soil improvement practices in the Columbia Basin, such as green manure (and cover crops), organic amendments (e.g. […]

A Snapshot of Organic Agriculture in Washington State for 2016 was recently published in the Tilth Journal.  Global retail organic sales exceeded $80 billion in 2015, with North America accounting for 51% of that.  The U.S. had an estimated 4.3 million certified organic acres in that year as well. Washington State had an estimated 94,000 […]