Purpose – The organic trade literature in the USA makes strong claims about the relationship between income, ethnicity, and other factors and the likelihood of purchasing organic food products. However, previous economic research focusing on the socio-economic characteristics of organic food consumers yields mixed findings. One explanation for the literature’s inconsistent findings is that most studies rely on one specific product or one region of the country, or base their analysis on data collected from in-store surveys. Another shortcoming in the existing literature is the failure to account for how access to organic food influences the likelihood of buying organic food. This paper’s goal is to identify what is known, as well as what is not known, about consumers of organic food.