I have a researcher questioning some of the data produced in the 2006 and 2011 AgCensus for Organic farms and I have to admit after looking at it I'm wondering too.
2006 Data:
Total number of farms reporting organic products regardless of the certification status = 15511 - CANADA
Total number of farms producing certified organic products = 3555 - CANADA
Total number of farms producing transitional organic products = 640 - CANADA
2011 Data:
Organic products for sale (104) (Total number) = 2535 - CANADA
Certified organic products for sale (Total number) = 2383 - CANADATransitional organic products for sale (Total number) = 225 - CANADA
Note: 104. Organic products for sale. The total number of farms reporting does not equal the sum of the parts because a farm could report more than one category.
In the 2011 Data - the unit is Total Number and NOT Total Farms Reporting or Farms Reporting. Is this correct? If it is what this is telling me is that there are 2535 organic products for sale in 2011? If this is correct - then there is NO total for Farms Reporting Organic products as in 2006?
Answer
For 2011 is also number of farms reporting, although I can certainly understand where the confusion comes from.I would add that in 2006, because of the way the question was asked, there was a lot of self-identified "certified organic" farmers which does not qualify for certified because they don’t have the paper from the certifying agencies.So in 2011, we changed the question for only certified and transitional. In 2006 farm operators could include area that was organic, but uncertified. In 2011 that particular type of area was excluded.
