Burlington--A set of recently released factsheets, one for each state, provides demographic data about U.S. farms that offer agritourism activities or sell products directly to consumers or both. They are designed to help local decision makers, farmers and the organizations that support them in their efforts to strengthen and expand agritourism enterprises.

The factsheets were developed by Claudia Schmidt, Pennsylvania State University, with input from Dr. Lisa Chase, University of Vermont Extension, and other collaborators at the University of Maine, Oklahoma State University and Penn State. The information is based on data from the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, the latest data available.

Each factsheet contains information about the total number of farms in the state and how many are engaged in agritourism activities, direct sales to consumers or both. They also include detailed demographic and business information about these farms, including farmer age and gender, crops grown, farm size and farm income generated through agritourism and direct sales.

“These fact sheets are meant to be a resource for the people working to increase the number of agritourism operators in their areas,” Schmidt explains. “They contain data that will be especially useful to people writing grants and proposals when they want to describe how many farms are out there, the types of agritourism activities they’re engaged in and how much money they’re earning from these activities.” 

According to the factsheet for Vermont, the state has 6,808 total farms, including 1,953 offering direct sales or agritourism activities. Of those, 1,767 sell their products directly to consumers, 120 only offer agritourism activities and 66 do both. The majority of these farms have been in business for more than 10 years with the largest proportion of farmers in each group from 55 to 64 years old.

For farms with only direct sales, 34.5 percent sell diversified crops and another 12.2 percent, vegetables and melons. Agritourism-only operations are 42.5 percent diversified livestock, followed by 17.5 percent sheep and goats. For farms with both, the top sellers are diversified crops (25.8 percent), vegetables and melons (18.2 percent) and floriculture (12.1 percent).

In addition to state-level insights, the data reveals regional and national trends. For example, agritourism and direct sales activities are most prevalent in the Northeast states, accounting for about one-fifth of all U.S. farms that offer some form of agritourism, including direct sales.

“As agritourism and direct sales become increasingly important to the vitality of both farms and rural communities, we need better data to help us understand trends around the U.S.,” Chase concludes. “Here in Vermont, much of what we consider to be agritourism, such as pick-your-own and meals on farms, is categorized as direct sales by the U.S. Census of Agriculture. While the census reports direct sales and agritourism as separate activities, in reality it makes sense to consider them together because that more accurately reflects the consumer’s experience.”

To view the factsheets, go to https://go.uvm.edu/ag-facts.