Sustainable Agriculture Literature Review - Boulder County

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In 2007, organic product sales represented 2.83 percent of the total agricultural output in
Boulder County, higher than the state of Colorado’s average of only 0.83 percent. 871
Unfortunately, the 2002 Census of Agriculture does not include data on organic produce,
making it difficult to determine market trends. Though the percentages of total
agricultural output from organic produce seems low, Colorado is among the top organic
producing states (Figure 44).
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Figure 44: 2007 U.S. Organic Produce Output
Note: Data for Nevada was not available
Data comparing profitability of organic farming versus conventional farming is limited.
However, both organic and conventional farmers spend the same amount of time (six
percent of their days) working off of their farms. Such findings suggest that supplemental
incomes are no more important to organic farmers than conventional farmers, likely due
to the higher prices that organic farmers receive for their commodities. 872
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