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Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri, Harvest covers agriculture-related topics through a network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.

Ag Department Commissions Local Direct Farm Sales Survey

Eugene Kim, flickr Creative Commons

Local food was worth $8.7 billion to farmers last year.

The Agriculture Department commissioned a survey to get a handle on the economic impact of the local food industry. The results are in: More than 167,000 farms across the U.S. sold produce, milk, and meat directly to shoppers in 2015.

The largest chunk of sales – about 40 percent – came from local schools, hospitals and wholesalers.

"The next sizeable category, which covered 115,000 operations, and was certainly the largest category in terms of total number of operations that were involved, was direct to consumer sales," says National Agricultural Statistics Service's Joe Parsons. "So that’s on farm sales, on-farm stores, farmers markets, roadside stands, those sorts of things."

Grocery stores and restaurants bought up the remaining $2.4 billion in food straight from the farm.

Kristofor Husted is a senior reporter at KBIA in Columbia, Mo. Previously Husted reported for NPR’s Science Desk in Washington and Harvest Public Media. Husted was a 2013 fellow with the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources and a 2015 fellow for the Institute for Journalism and Justice. He’s won regional and national Edward R. Murrow, PRNDI and Sigma Delta Chi awards. Husted also is an instructor at the Missouri School of Journalism. He received a B.S. in cell biology from UC Davis and an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University.