Montgomery, AL –The release of preliminary 2012 Census of Agriculture results today shows strong trends for the future of Alabama Agriculture. Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries John McMillan stated, “I am very encouraged to see that Alabama farms sold $5.6 billion in agricultural products in 2012, a 26% increase from 2007. This double digit growth in Alabama farm products sold was accomplished during the nation’s worst recession since World War II.”
McMillan commends the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service for their outstanding efforts collecting and compiling the data received from farmers across the nation. Commissioner McMillan expressed his sincere gratitude to the Alabama Field office and specifically to Cynthia Price, Alabama’s State Statistician for the hours of work required to gather and decipher all the data.
He added that the preliminary numbers are a strong indication that Alabama Agriculture is thriving and has a good future. A full report that will include more detailed numbers and also include county data will be released in May of this year.
More information is available at www.agcensus.usda.gov or for specific questions about Alabama’s Census data, please contact Cynthia Price at 334/279-3555 or by email at Cynthia.Price@nass.usda.gov