Although all growers face price fluctuations and unpredictable yields, ERS’ examination of the Census of Agriculture data shows that 61% of farms with direct-to-consumer sales in 2007 were in business under the same operator in 2012, compared with only 55% of farms without direct-to-consumer sales. This stability held true even when comparing farms in four different levels of annual sales: in each category, farm marketing operations had a higher survival rate. The difference in survival rates ranged from 10 percentage points among the smallest farms to about 6 percentage points among the largest.
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Growing Produce