Dive Brief:
- A total of almost $9 million in federal funding is going to support urban agriculture efforts in 10 U.S. cities, the Department of Agriculture announced last week.
- A local organization in each city will receive funds to help urban food producers learn about and access federal services offered by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.
- The cities where organizations have been awarded funds are Denver; Boston; Las Vegas; Houston; Pittsburgh; Jackson, Mississippi; Kansas City, Missouri; Columbia, South Carolina; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee.
Dive Insight:
Supporters of urban agriculture credit it with numerous benefits. The USDA says it can increase climate resilience by diversifying the crops in an area and providing access to local foods as increasing disasters threaten global supply chains. Growing food in urban areas can also add green spaces to cities while reducing the need for humans to take up as much space for farming in rural areas.
However, significant barriers exist for those who want to farm in cities. First, urban land is expensive. Plus, many cities don’t have “easy-to-follow guidelines or ways to help farmers get started,” the USDA explains on its website. It calls on city leaders to figure out ideal places in communities where urban farming could take place — and to find the funding needed for urban agriculture programs.
Some cities have recently added positions within the government to coordinate urban agriculture programs. For example, Detroit appointed an urban farming advocate as its first director of urban agriculture last year.
The USDA has taken other actions to support urban agriculture, too. Last year, it established 17 new urban service centers to help farmers in those areas. Connecting more food producers to those centers is among the goals of the USDA’s recent $9 million in awards to local organizations, which are funded through the American Rescue Plan.
The local organizations given awards will work with the USDA’s Farm Service Agency and To Improve Mississippi Economics, a nonprofit that supports farmers. According to the USDA’s Oct. 8 press release, the partnerships will help the county offices of the Farm Service Agency better understand the support urban farmers need and develop policy recommendations to boost participation in federal programs.
