KUTZTOWN, PA — Rodale Institute has released a nationwide market analysis aimed at helping U.S. farmers identify opportunities in the $76.6 billion organic sector, where sales rose 6.8% in 2025 but surging imports in categories such as beef and cotton point to gaps in domestic production.
“A Farmer’s Toolkit 2026” combines national and regional market data with profiles covering all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It also incorporates interviews with 28 buyers of organic products to examine demand, infrastructure constraints and routes to market.
The report comes as organic food sales increased 6.9% in 2025, roughly three times the growth rate of the broader food market. The U.S. organic market is projected to surpass $100 billion by 2030.
Some of the fastest growth is occurring outside traditional organic produce categories. Certified organic beef sales surged 44.3% in 2025, the strongest increase among organic subcategories cited in the report.
Organic meat, poultry and seafood sales climbed 22.5% and exceeded $3 billion for the first time, according to Organic Trade Association figures incorporated into the analysis. Organic dairy and egg sales increased 12.8%, including a 22.4% increase in eggs and 16.6% growth in yogurt.
The expansion in consumer demand has not been matched entirely by domestic supply. Beef became the largest tracked U.S. organic import by value in 2025 as import volumes increased 44%, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data cited in the toolkit.
Rodale’s analysis also identifies organic feed grain as a potential domestic production opportunity because expanding livestock and dairy production increases demand for certified organic feed.
“Organic livestock and dairy are growing fast, and that growth depends on organic feed grain, which we’re not producing enough of at home,” Joe Dickson, director of strategy at Wolf & Associates, said. “That gap is an opportunity sitting in plain sight for American grain farmers.”
U.S. certified organic farm-gate sales totaled $11.2 billion across about 8.1 million certified acres in 2021, with production concentrated in produce and dairy rather than feed grains. The report also identifies fiber as a significant supply gap, estimating that about 99% of U.S. organic cotton consumption is imported.
The findings point to potential opportunities in livestock, dairy, grain, oilseeds, feed and value-added products, but the analysis cautions that rising demand alone does not make conversion to organic production economically viable.
Processing and storage capacity, aggregation, transportation, distribution and access to buyers can determine whether producers have a workable market. Feed availability, land and labor costs, water, seasonality and distance from customers can also alter the economics from one region to another.
The toolkit divides the country into eight regions — Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Central Plains, Southwest, West and Northwest — to account for those differences.
Buyer interviews reinforced the importance of establishing a market before making production decisions. Certification, consistent supply, product quality, specifications and communication emerged as recurring requirements among retailers, institutional purchasers, grain companies, seed buyers, dairy companies, cotton businesses and direct-to-consumer food companies.
The report recommends that farmers speak with potential customers before purchasing seed or planting crops, including determining required varieties and grades, anticipated volumes, certification standards, delivery schedules, processing and storage requirements, transportation arrangements, pricing and payment terms.
Development of the toolkit was led by Wolf & Associates for Rodale Institute and the Organic Trade Association through the USDA Transition to Organic Partnership Program. The program grew out of the USDA’s $300 million Organic Transition Initiative launched in 2022 to support farmers moving into certified organic production and expand domestic supply.
The report also follows Rodale Institute’s July launch of its “10 Million Acre Solution,” which seeks to move 10 million acres of U.S. farmland into organic and regenerative organic management by 2030.
Rodale Chief Executive Officer Jeff Tkach framed the new market data as a tool for evaluating whether conversion makes economic sense for individual farms.
“Farmers deserve clear, practical information that helps them see where opportunity exists and determine whether organic production is right for their farms,” Tkach said.
“A Farmer’s Toolkit 2026” is available free at https://rodaleinstitute.org/farmer-toolkit/.
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