The USDA 2017 Census of Agriculture found that 28,575 farms in the United States generated income from agritourism — a category that includes farm stays, U-pick operations, farm tours, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, farm-to-table dinners, and educational programs. By the 2022 census, that number and the revenue generated had both grown substantially.

Agritourism is not a side hustle farms run instead of farming. It's a revenue stream that's making farming viable in places where commodity prices and wholesale margins would otherwise force farms to sell their land.

What Agritourism Actually Includes

The category is broader than people realize.

U-pick operations. Strawberry fields, blueberry patches, apple orchards, pumpkin patches — customers come to the farm and harvest their own food. The farm saves labor, gets paid retail prices for the crop, and creates an experience customers come back for annually.

Farm tours. Guided tours of working farms, typically offered to school groups, families, and corporate groups. Some farms charge per-person admission; others offer free tours and recoup through product sales at the visit.

Farm stays. Overnight accommodation on working farms — through Airbnb farm listings, dedicated agritourism cabins, or farmstay networks. Guests experience the rhythm of farm life (or a curated version of it) while the farm generates lodging revenue.

Harvest festivals and seasonal events. Corn mazes in October, lavender harvest weekends in July, garlic festivals in August, maple syrup weekends in February. These events bring large numbers of visitors for a defined period, generating concentrated revenue from admissions, product sales, and food service.

Farm-to-table dinners. Fixed-price dinners held on the farm, featuring the farm's own produce and products. These have become high-value events at some farms — $95 to $175 per person dinners that sell out months in advance and build community around the farm's brand.

Workshops and classes. Cheese-making workshops, bread-baking classes, butchery demonstrations, cheesemaking, beekeeping courses. These sell the farm's knowledge as a product.

Weddings and private events. Farm weddings are their own booming category — barn venues, pastoral backdrops, and farm-sourced catering combining into an event type that commands premium prices.

Why Farms Are Turning to Agritourism

Farming margins are thin. For vegetable farms selling at wholesale to distributors or grocery chains, profit margins are often in the range of 1 to 5 percent of gross revenue. A farm earning $300,000 in produce sales might net $15,000 to $30,000 after labor, inputs, equipment, and land costs.

Agritourism changes the math. The same farm that earns $5 per pound for tomatoes at wholesale might earn $8 per pound at their farm stand during an orchard festival weekend — plus $25 per person in event admission. The direct-to-consumer channel and the experience layer add up.

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service found that farms with agritourism income averaged $72,000 in agritourism revenue per farm in 2017 — and that number has grown with the category. For many small farms, that revenue line is the difference between breaking even and staying in business.

Why Consumers Are Driving the Growth

Two forces have pushed agritourism demand significantly in the past decade.

The first is disconnection. Roughly 80 percent of Americans live in urban or suburban areas. Surveys consistently show that urban consumers want experiences that connect them to where food comes from — not just the product, but the place and the people behind it. Visiting a farm satisfies something a grocery store fundamentally cannot.

The second is the experience economy. Consumers, particularly millennials and Gen Z, allocate spending toward experiences over material goods at a measurably higher rate than previous generations. A weekend farm stay with a U-pick blueberry morning and a farm dinner on Saturday night competes directly with hotel-and-restaurant weekends in ways it didn't 20 years ago.

The pandemic accelerated both forces. People emerged from lockdowns with an intensified appetite for outdoor experiences, authentic connections, and visits to places with clear provenance. Farm visits surged in 2021 and 2022 and, by most accounts, the new customers they acquired have continued to return.

The Economic Case for Farms

For a farm evaluating whether to invest in agritourism, the calculation involves several factors.

Visitor capacity and zoning. Many farms face local zoning restrictions on how many visitors they can host and what activities they can operate. Farms in agricultural-zoned areas may need variances to run events with large attendance. This is a real barrier in some states and a non-issue in others.

Infrastructure investment. Parking, restrooms, event spaces, and liability insurance add up. A farm running U-pick without restrooms is running a liability. A farm hosting weddings needs event infrastructure that can cost $20,000 to $200,000 to build.

Labor and management complexity. Adding visitors to a working farm adds management complexity. The skills required to run tours and events are different from the skills required to grow food. Some farmers love it; others find it exhausting.

Seasonality. Most agritourism is concentrated in the spring, summer, and fall. Farms in cold climates have a short agritourism window. Some solve this with greenhouses, winter holiday events, or indoor facilities. Others accept the seasonality.

When it works, the payoff is substantial: diversified revenue, direct community relationships, a customer base that understands and values what the farm does, and marketing that happens organically when visitors share their experience.

What to Look for When Visiting a Farm

If you're going to an agritourism event, a few things make the experience better for everyone.

Book ahead. Popular farm events sell out. A farm dinner in July may be fully booked in April. U-pick strawberry fields have their best picking windows for only a week or two.

Respect the working farm. You're a guest in someone's workplace. Stay on designated paths, follow instructions about what areas are accessible, and keep children close in areas with equipment or livestock.

Buy something. You're visiting a farm, not a theme park. The farm's products — produce, meat, cheese, preserves, baked goods — are the reason the farm exists. Buying them is the primary way you support what you've enjoyed.

Ask questions. Agritourism is your best opportunity to actually talk to the people who grow your food. A farmer running tours wants you to understand what they do. Take the conversation seriously.

Find farms near you offering tours, U-pick, and events and plan a visit this season. For a closer look at what a farm wedding or event involves, read about the growing farm wedding trend.