--- title: There's a Record Number of Organic Producers in the U.S., USDA Says description: There's a record number of organic producers in the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Wednesday. canonical: https://time.com/3823870/record-organic-producers-united-states/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-15T20:13:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:23.352Z article:section: Health og:title: There's a Record Number of Organic Farms and Processing Facilities in the U.S. og:description: The number of organic producers in the U.S. has risen more than 5% in a year og:url: https://time.com/3823870/record-organic-producers-united-states/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43ed8a9e86f09a1f/698781538e060123a145a872/time-50-healthiest-foods-tomatoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: healthiest foods, health food, diet, nutrition, time.com stock, tomatoes, fruits og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's a Record Number of Organic Farms and Processing Facilities in the U.S. twitter:description: The number of organic producers in the U.S. has risen more than 5% in a year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43ed8a9e86f09a1f/698781538e060123a145a872/time-50-healthiest-foods-tomatoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's a Record Number of Organic Farms and Processing Facilities in the U.S. > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Should I Drink Smoothies? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Drink Smoothies?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yaJvnmtl.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2015-04-01. Are fruit smoothies good for you? Here's why 3 out of 5 experts said yes._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 15, 2015 8:13 PM UTC  Danny Kim for TIME by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 15, 2015 8:13 PM UTC There are nearly 20,000 certified organic operations in the U.S., which is a new record, officials [announced](http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2015/04/0097.xml&contentidonly=true) on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) counted 19,474 organic farms, ranches and processing facilities, up more than 5% from last year and 250% from 2002, when officials began tracking certified organic producers. Worldwide, there are more than 27,800 organic producers. “As demand for organic products continues to soar, more and more producers are entering the organic market,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement. “USDA tools and resources have created opportunities for organic farmers and more options for organic consumers. Growing demand for organic goods can be especially helpful to smaller family operations. The more diverse type of operations and the more growing market sectors we have in American agriculture, the better off our country’s rural economy will be.” Recently, the USDA [put forward $66.5 million in funding](http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2015/03/0061.xml&contentidonly=true) to support specialty crops and organic food production. The USDA is also creating an organic operations database that will streamline organic certification processes, and keep updated information about certificated facilities in the U.S. The USDA says the database will likely roll out in September. Other recent data shows that U.S. consumers [are continuing to buy organic produce](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US%5FGROWTH%5FOF%5FORGANICS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) even despite rising prices, which is good news for producers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3823870/record-organic-producers-united-states/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3823870/record-organic-producers-united-states/"},"headline":"There's a Record Number of Organic Farms and Processing Facilities in the U.S.","datePublished":"2015-04-15T20:13:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:23.352Z","description":"The number of organic producers in the U.S. has risen more than 5% in a year","url":"https://time.com/3823870/record-organic-producers-united-states/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","USDA","farms","Organic","Produce"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43ed8a9e86f09a1f/698781538e060123a145a872/time-50-healthiest-foods-tomatoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43ed8a9e86f09a1f/698781538e060123a145a872/time-50-healthiest-foods-tomatoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"healthiest foods, health food, diet, nutrition, time.com stock, tomatoes, fruits","caption":"healthiest foods, health food, diet, nutrition, time.com stock, tomatoes, fruits","creditText":"Danny Kim for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3823870/record-organic-producers-united-states/","name":"There's a Record Number of Organic Farms and Processing Facilities in the U.S."}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Should I Drink Smoothies?","description":"Are fruit smoothies good for you? 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