Ag Census data on Race Gender Ethnicity

Ag Census data on Race Gender Ethnicity

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett
California is home to more than 70,500 farms according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, down a few thousand farms from the previous census of 2012 . And according to the recently released data from the Census of Agriculture, demographics are trending toward an increasing number of female and minority operators.

Gary Keough, Director of California National Agricultural Statistics Service

“Your looking at a 124, 405 total producers on all of these farms. What few people may realize is that 46, 235 of those total producers are women. Those who are not around agriculture a lot may be surprised at that. I’ve seen that as a trend for the last ten years. Hispanic operators around 14, 597 were involved in agricultural production Asian producers around 14, 649.”

In 2012 California farms with female principal operators numbered under 14, 000.

12, 030 California farms were run by Hispanic operators in 2012. and 5,500 farms were run by Asian producers.

The new census of Ag released earlier this year was redesigned to contain more information than in previous years about the producer profiles

Data such as these are often used by community-based organizations, and by policy and other decision makers to ensure that all producers are represented when important decisions are made about agricultural programs and grant funding, among others.

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