Louisiana Agritourism: Agritourism Educates Everyone About Agriculture

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Agritourism Educates Everyone About Agriculture

My office is at a research station and last week one of our farm neighbor's pot bellied pig got out and was rooting along our research station fence row. We are located on a major highway and many motorists stopped to tell us that our cow was out. We are in a rural area, but so few people own or live on a farm, therefore they did not know a pig from a cow.

We laughed about that last week and today I open an e-mail from Jane Eckert of Eckert AgriMarketing and she has some funny stories that have been shared with her. Below are just a few:

The pumpkin field was running low in late October and a customer asked the farmer - "will you be planting more for next weekend?"

We love your maze and would like to come back in February on my birthday. Will the corn still be green?

A family complained that there was no water fountain inside the corn maze.

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Agritourism Law Limits Liability

In 2008, the Louisiana Legislature expanded the limitation of liability found in La R.S. 9:2795 et seq to include certain agritourism activities. The legislation authored by Representative Andy Anders and Senators Francis Thompson and Mike Walsworth provides that the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Foresty (LDAF) will develop a set of rules and regulations and that the LSU AgCenter will define a “plan of operation” for an agritourism venture and review those plans.

More about this law can be found on the LSU AgCenter Web site: www.lsuagcenter.com/agritourism

2012 Agriculture Census Shows Increase in Farming

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2014 –There are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the United States, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Once every five years, farmers, ranchers and growers have the unique opportunity to let the world know how U.S. agriculture is changing, what is staying the same, what’s working and what we can do differently,” said Dr. Cynthia Clark, the retiring head of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, which administered the survey.

Eighty-seven percent of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals.
Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were predominantly male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female; and third operators were younger still.
In Louisiana agritourism grew from 170 farms in 2007 to 361 farms in 2012.
In Louisiana onfarm agritourism sales jumped from $2,486 to $8,996 in 2012.
In Louisiana the definition of agritourism is broader than the definition in the census; meaning that numbers are greater.