The small organic farms that characterize Maine are moving away from dairy and getting smaller.
A new report by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association highlights changes across Maine’s organic farming landscape in the past 15 years, particularly in the dairy industry, and identifies a trend toward smaller field crop operations as a new generation starts to farm.
The paper evaluates the size, profitability, economic impact and future goals of organic farms in Maine from 2007 through 2021. Data comes from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, sales data and an informal survey of certified organic producers. An expanded report incorporating the results of the state’s 2022 agricultural survey and other state data should be released in December.
Next generation organic farmers value work-life balance and don’t want the risks that come with big farms. If the movement to smaller farms continues, it could make a big change in Maine’s organic farming landscape.
“The new generation is finding and articulating a greater balance of what it takes to sustain yourself in farming,” said Nicolas Lindholm, the study’s co-author who specializes in organic marketing and business for the association. “They’re entering a pretty well-developed organic marketplace in Maine, but there also aren’t that many more 20- to 30-acre vegetable farms needed in the Midcoast, for example. Niche markets are the key to surviving for new farmers.”
Maine’s organic production value increased from $65 million to $97 million over the study period, adjusted for inflation, according to the report. Fewer farms are certified and there is only a slight increase in the number of acres in organic production.
Product sales alone totaled about $23 million in 2007 and rose to more than $63 million in 2019, then dropped to $51.83 million in 2021.
That doesn’t mean individual farms are profiting more. Most of Maine’s organic dairy farms in particular operate at a loss.
In 2007, 582 certified organic farms in the state worked on 40,000 acres. In 2021, 496 farms cultivated 45,000 acres.
Just two years before, in 2019, acres in production peaked at more than 55,000. There were 298 more jobs in organic farming here in 2021 than 2007, totaling 964, after a high of 1,182 in 2015.
Those patterns varied by farm type, and the organic dairy industry is in particular trouble, Lindholm said. Organic milk remained the biggest seller in Maine over the study period at about $15 million. Field crops have overtaken dairy as overall economic leaders in the certified organic market since 2007.
Maine milk was in a boom phase when the study began 15 years ago, Lindholm said.
Today, “the organic dairy industry is not in a good place,” he said. “It’s kind of spiraling right now.”
Contract upheaval about five years ago and continued per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance contamination concerns, commonly referred to as PFAS, leave organic producers in tenuous positions.
Organic dairy farms stayed more stable than conventional ones, according to the Maine Milk Commission’s executive director Julie-Marie Bickford. The state had about 70 organic dairy farms 20 years ago, and that number has hovered around 50 for the past five years.
Organic farmers have set monthly prices in their contracts that allow them some more predictability. Conventional dairy farm milk prices are set by federal formulas that don’t reflect their operating costs, she said.
She believes the conventional dairy industry is also in trouble for some of the same reasons as organic producers, like increased costs, including trucking.
In 2020, there were 195 recorded Maine dairy farms overall, and that number dropped to 145 at the end of last month, according to Bickford.
In this decade, crops such as vegetables and fruits led Maine’s organic production over dairy; it made up half the state’s organic economic impact in 2021.
Across all organic sectors, farm size increased by about 25 acres over the report period, up to 92 acres, but that may not continue. As older organic farmers with larger operations age out, they often don’t know young people interested in taking on their businesses, according to Lindholm.
The association trains about 30 new farmers each year through its journeyperson program. Most of them have small operations, and tell organizers they want it that way.
A bigger farm doesn’t mean bigger profits for Maine’s organic farmers. Operations that brought in more than $100,000 in annual sales often showed less profit than smaller ones. Equipment, infrastructure, storage, transportation and labor costs all increase with scale. When a farm scales up enough into commodity pricing, it earns less per unit, according to Lindholm.
The association is working to change the trend toward smaller farms, Lindholm said, and expects to use the survey’s results about farmer goals to direct its programs.
Farmers who responded to the survey hope to increase on-farm sales direct to customers and rely less on markets, the report found. Respondents also look to increase their financial skills. Other challenges included climate changes and labor shortages.
Lindholm hopes the association will produce these reports at five-year intervals.
