California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), one of the most prominent and oldest organic certifiers in the U.S., reached the half-million acre mark last month, a sign of the times for the organic industry. In one year, nationwide sales of organic food jumped by $4 billion, from $13 billion in 2006 to $17 billion in 2007.

Established in the 1970s by a group of farmers, CCOF certifies farms in 29 states and five countries. The half-million acres are almost equally divided between livestock and produce farms.

CCOF has seen a 129 percent growth in certified acreage over the last two years, and, in 2007 alone, the organization certified 141,317 acres, a 40.7 percent growth in one year. And the rise in organic dairy and meat products has influenced the rapid increase in certified pasture, which grew from 38,611 acres in 2004 to its current 241,511 acres.

A lot of the growth also stems from farms seeking to expand their operations to include infrastructure for processing, handling, and packaging in order to add value to their products. (These facilities require certification under the National Organic Program, too.)

There may always be disagreement within the organic movement about the National Organic Program and certification in general, but this announcement should be celebrated by all who support organic food, because at the end of the day, it's a half million more acres that aren't soaking in chemical pesticides, harboring transgenic seeds, or contributing to those algal blooms carpeting your nearest waterway.

Source: California Certified Organic Farmers

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