On February 13, 2024, the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the 2022 Census of Agriculture.  The census─which been taken and released every five years since 1997─is a complete count of US farms and ranches and the people who operate them. In 2022, the response rate was reported as 61%.

The data is now available on the NASS website (2022 Census). Here are a few highlights.

Overall

• The production value of fruits, tree nuts, and berries was reported to be $34.2 billion.
• The production value of vegetables was reported to be 28.2 billion.
• California accounted for 68% of the value of fruits, tree nuts and berries and 41% of the value of vegetables.
• The total area harvested for vegetables decreased by 1.3% since 2017.
• 61% of vegetables were harvested for the fresh market and 39% were harvested for processing.

Commodity specific

Lettuce

• In 2022, 367,432 acres of lettuce were harvested. This is a 7.1% increase compared to 2017 when 342,965 acres of lettuce were harvested.
• In 2022, 74.6% of the lettuce area harvested was in California and 17.7% of the lettuce area harvested was in Arizona, totaling 92.3% of lettuce area harvested in the United States.
• In 2022, the lettuce area harvested was 24.9% leaf, 38.8% head and 36.3% romaine.

Spinach

• Acres harvested from spinach in 2022 increased by 13.5% since 2017.
• California and Arizona lead spinach production: California 69.4%, Arizona 13.6%, Washington 4.6% and Texas 3.6%

Cantaloupes

• Area harvested decreased by 27% from 2017 to 2022.
• California 53%, Arizona 27.6% and Texas 4.6% lead cantaloupe production.