Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
Print > State of the Industry > Heartland

Title of entry: 
2024 State of the Vegetable Industry: I Am an American Vegetable Grower

Issue or Publication date:
Mainly July 2024, with August, September, and November 2024 articles included

Publication name: 
American Vegetable Grower

View Website home page:
https://www.growingproduce.com/vegetables/

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Entry Essay: 
American Vegetable Grower offers strategies and tips to commercial vegetable farmers across the U.S. to help them improve their operations. The audience includes farms of all sizes, from less than 25 acres to more than 10,000 acres, with the typical farm growing a wide array of crops.

Due to widespread industry support of our annual State of the Vegetable Industry Survey, we can conduct in-depth analyses of the results.

In geek terms, if we use a 99% confidence level, we have a 5% margin of error in our results (659 growers took the survey out of the roughly 18,000 sent out). Or a 4% margin of error with a 95% confidence level.

The survey is thorough, with thousands of data points. So it would be easy to get lost in the statistics that do not tell a full story. To counter this, we used the theme, "I Am an American Vegetable Grower." We highlighted a few growers that fit the most common responses in different areas. Each profile used a different style -- Q&A, first person essay, and feature article. Each had statistics and infographics included.

“I Am an American Vegetable Grower”
The first grower we highlighted typified the most common U.S. vegetable grower -- less than 25 acres in size helmed by farmers 65+.

“Meet Jack Manix”
Here, we looked at a growing portion of the vegetable industry, those producing crops in greenhouses and hoophouses.

“Software, and Sensors, and Drones, Oh My!”
Gardner Family Farms displayed some of the trends we're seeing in agricultural technology. For more in depth analysis, we reviewed results of entire survey with past years, looking for important developments. We found two to spotlight in this special issue.

“Extreme Weather Dampened Production”
We analyzed several years of responses on the same question to highlight an increase in severe weather with a decrease in production levels.

“More Growers Are Offering Benefits. Is It Enough?”
We tackled the perennial issue of a lack of farm labor through the lens of employee benefits and external labor groups. We point out that even large growers with more than 1,000 acres fall short of offering employee benefits -- 21% do not even offer health insurance. That jumps to 51% when all growers are included.

“What’s Happening?”
Lead Editor Carol Miller shares views on the strength of good statistics and their limits.
While we concentrate of the State of the Vegetable Industry in our July print edition, we continue State of the Vegetable Industry Survey analysis throughout the year, both online and in print. Other articles using the Survey as their basis include:
* Is the Vegetable Industry Set for a Greenhouse Boom? November, 2024 (digital: https://www.growingproduce.com/vegetables/is-the-vegetable-industry-set-for-a-greenhouse-boom/)
* Vegetable Growers Using Biopesticides Report More Success, September 2024 (Print and online, infographic feature)
* Analyzing Big Data on What's Happening in the Vegetable Industry, July 2024 (online only: https://www.growingproduce.com/vegetables/analyzing-big-data-on-whats-happening-in-the-vegetable-industry/)
* Offering the full survey as a download, August 2024. A mix of about 200 growers, university researchers, and suppliers downloaded the survey.