National Organic Coalition Discusses Why Farmers Are Dropping Organic Certification
There were 40,585 fewer acres of certified organic farmland in the United States in 2025 than there were in 2024.
That’s what Mallory Krieger, National Program Director for the Organic Agronomy Training Service (OATS), reported at a National Organic Coalition webinar on January 16, 2026, based on data from the USDA’s Organic Integrity Database (OID). Every year, some new farms are certified organic, while others voluntarily surrender their organic certification status. For the past few years, this has meant that the total number of certified organic farms has not increased much. In some areas, it has actually declined.
While the OID dataset has limitations, it did provide enough information for Krieger to sort the data into geographic regions and see which were losing more farms. Wisconsin, Iowa, Washington, and Minnesota lost the largest number of certified operations between 2024 and 2025, while California, New York, Florida, Missouri, and New Jersey had a net increase in certified operations.
In all states, even those with a net increase, there was a geographic shift in location of operations, with more in metropolitan areas and fewer in rural areas. The general trend seems to be that America’s rural areas are losing certified organic acreage, especially cropland.
Why do organic operations surrender their certification? Krieger asked several certifiers if they had any insight into this question, and they reported that 40–50 percent of farms dropped certification because they were no longer farming organically, 30 percent went out of business, 11 percent said the certification was too expensive or too much paperwork, and 20–25 percent gave no reason.
The second speaker at the webinar, Dr. Carolyn Dimitri, associate professor at New York University, reviewed what the published literature says about why farmers give up organic certification. Some have difficulty finding markets and don’t get the increased profits they were expecting, some have difficulty transitioning to organic management systems, and some have a negative experience with inspectors. Usually, if a farm gives up on organic certification, it’s within the first five years after transitioning—most often in the third year.
In the Q&A and breakout sessions, many participants agreed that the regulatory burden of organic certification has been overemphasized. They also confirmed that market demand is not declining. The biggest reason farmers don’t stick with organic—or don’t even try to transition in the first place—is the strong prejudice against organic farming in rural areas. When all your neighbors are saying organic can’t feed the world, it’s hard to swim against the tide.
How can eco-farmers help reverse this trend and encourage more conventional farmers to transition to organic? By providing a strong, supportive community, mentorship, and educational resources. With encouragement, support, and some gentle correction of misinformation, maybe we can reverse this trend and get rural communities excited about organic farming.
