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Comparison Of 'Organic' And 'Conventional' Grains And Soybean Prices In The Northern Great Plains And Upper Midwest: 1995 Through 2003, Nicholas Streff, Thomas L. Dobbs

Economics Pamphlet Series

Price premiums for organic crops drew the attention of an increasing number of farmers throughout the 1990s. Premiums contributed to the expansion of U.S. farmland managed under organic farming systems during that time period. Expansion of organic farming systems continued at least through 2001. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service's most recent data on organic farming systems, U.S. farmers and ranchers added almost one million acres of certified organic farmland between 1997 and 2001, an increase of 74 percent. Over that same time frame, certified organic cropland increased by 53 percent). The USDA implemented national …