Other Ag News: USDA Sows Trust and Farm Success in Urban Communities

Urban farms not only grow food, but they also build community, create green space, and increase access to healthy food. Yet, farmers in urban and suburban areas are not immune to the pressures of higher input costs and competition for resources. These issues simply present in different ways. Farmers in more residentially dense areas feel the pressure of development and competition for land, resulting in tenuous land access or complicated zoning ordinances; access to safe water for irrigation can be extremely costly or entirely reliant on rainwater; the smaller size of their business can make it difficult to benefit from bulk purchases in the same way as traditional farming operations. 

These issues are more common among farms than expected. Analysis of 2022 Agricultural Census data — overlaid with USDA Economic Research Service Rural-Urban Continuum Codes — shows that 839,049 farms are located in metro counties, and another 708,857 operate in non-metro counties adjacent to metro areas. Altogether, more than 1.5 million farms face unique urban and suburban pressures that farmers located outside these areas do not face. 

The 2018 Farm Bill took significant steps to dedicate US Department of Agriculture (USDA) resources to addressing these challenges by creating the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP). Since its creation, OUAIP has quickly implemented programming, grants, and cooperative agreements. These activities have provided vital support to urban farmers while identifying new and ongoing barriers for the upcoming farm bill reauthorization to address. 

The creation of the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production stole the spotlight of the 2018 Farm Bill, understandably so since it has invested over $85 million through 199 grants and 146 cooperative agreements across 43 states and Puerto Rico since 2020. However, an often overlooked win in the farm bill was the creation of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Urban County Committees and their respective USDA Service Centers.

Local USDA Service Centers are essential for farmers to access resources. Oftentimes, they serve as the primary point of service for farmers seeking support from USDA. In an effort to ensure Centers respond to the unique needs of the geographical regions they serve, farmers also elect their peers to serve on FSA County Committees. These committees ensure farmer representation in local decision-making that affects the delivery of services in the area. This model was authorized in 1935. Today, nearly 2,300 Centers are nestled within farming communities nationwide, and since 2020, USDA has named 27 new FSA Urban County Committees and corresponding service centers to specifically serve farmers in urban and suburban settings. The map below shows the locations of all 27 FSA Urban County Committees.

In an effort to strengthen new Service Centers and Urban County Committees, FSA has partnered with community organizations to provide technical assistance and conduct farmer outreach to promote FSA resources to farmers who have less experience navigating USDA services. In 2023, FSA entered into dozens of new Urban Agriculture Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance cooperative agreements with community-based technical assistance providers. Agreements varied in scope to respond to unique geographic needs, but all maintained key elements: 

• assisting farmers with required FSA annual reporting; 
• providing business planning;
• matching technical assistance with a micro-grant that corresponds with their business growth goals. 

Several National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members across the country received agreements, including Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Farm to Table New Mexico, PASA Sustainable Agriculture, Sprout, Renewing the Countryside, and Cultivate Kansas City, while many more partnered closely with cooperators. The map below shows the location of NSAC members with FSA cooperative agreements to support urban farmers. 

In order to reach farmers, organizations developed curricula, technical guides, and organized services via group settings or 1-1 services. While many USDA Urban Service Centers were slow to open their doors, these local partners scheduled farm visits, hosted community events, and ensured services were accessible to all interested farmers. Organizations offered traditional farm technical assistance such as help filing for a farm number, acreage reporting, and production planning, along with contextual support to navigate local zoning restrictions and access city utilities. 

Due to the distinct challenges of urban settings, farmers are often proactively addressing these concerns. As a result, organizations often found that farmers were more than ready for education and training on topics such as sustainable pest management, urban landscaping, water runoff management, rainwater collection, compost infrastructure and management, and soil health through cover crops and other techniques. 

One key element of the Urban Agriculture Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance agreements was the inclusion of subawards in the form of micro-grants to farmers. Capital access for new, beginning, and small farm operations can be difficult due to limited revenue history, lack of collateral, or small initial profit projections. These challenges for urban farmers can be exacerbated by limited land ownership and competitiveness in limited USDA annual funding pools. 

To address these challenges, many organizations allocated a portion of their organizational funding for implementing micro-grant awards to producers. Since these same partners were intimately involved in business development and planning with the farmers, the awards were well timed and led to sizeable impact. 

One Cooperator – Farm to Table New Mexico – shared that their competitive micro-grant application process was designed to support farmers in increasing their production capacity. All the recipients operate with a gross cash income of $250,000 or less annually. They focused on supporting capacity building for a diverse range of small-scale producers in urban communities as an important investment in the state’s food ecosystem that will help deliver locally grown and nutritious products directly to urban communities. Because Farm to Table is deeply engaged with technical assistance for urban producers, they were well equipped to support farmers in the application process and identify which applications would be most impactful.

Farm to Table implemented 3 years of grant cycles, funding 40 projects for a total of $341,961 directly invested in local farming operations. One project included funding for the Williams Family Farm, which operates the region’s only winter tomato production using natural and organic practices. They quickly exceeded their own capacity after they launched winter operations. Grant funds supported the construction of a third winter greenhouse, enabling the farm to supply all San Juan County schools and day care centers through the New Mexico Grown program. 

Similarly, Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) awarded 52 microgrants across seven California counties valued at $607,500. Microgrant awards were primarily used for production supplies, infrastructure, and associated labor costs. Project examples include refrigeration for farmstand and wholesale operations, irrigation installation and automation for seedlings, compost systems, and more. 85% of farms that received these micro-grants sell their produce in communities with greater need, such as to seniors and low-income families. 

One project that received CAFF funding was Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont (LEAF), which used their grant to purchase a small, used tractor with a front loader to improve the efficiency of their operation. This purchase facilitated tasks such as mulching, composting, and planting. The tractor greatly expanded their operational footprint from .33 acre to 1.3 acres while supporting their mission of increasing food production for underserved families and fostering community resilience. A before and after funding photo is below.

Farmers from other regions have shared additional details about their individual experience. 

With the micro-grant, I was able to update the irrigation, seed container, tools, and plumbing in the farm. I really enjoyed how simple the application process was, and it was useful for our small farm,” shared a 9th Ward community garden in New Orleans. 

In Kansas City, Ophelia’s Blue Vine Farm was funded to upgrade their greenhouse to increase year-round production capabilities. It is estimated that improvements will increase yield in the greenhouse by 20-30%. These upgrades will improve insulation, extend the growing season, and lower energy costs, creating a more efficient and sustainable system for growing fresh, affordable food in Kansas City’s 18th & Vine District.

The Urban Agriculture Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance agreements have been instrumental in introducing new services and processes for farmers unfamiliar with USDA services. The timing of these agreements led to even greater impact due to the high turnover in local field office staffing in the past fourteen months. FSA lost 21% of its federal staff between January 2025 and January 2026 and an additional 8% of its FSA county staff during the same time period. The loss of these FSA staff makes it even more difficult for urban farmers to get the support they need. Partnership agreements such as these provide continuity of services from trusted partners that can help support farmers and USDA staff alike. 

Relatedly, despite funding for OUAIP, staff turnover in the national office last year interfered with full implementation of Congressionally mandated programs, such as the Urban and Innovative Production Grants. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) was withdrawn in February 2025, and there were no grant awards made in Fiscal Year 2025. Unfortunately, we are rapidly approaching the end of Fiscal Year 2026 and have not seen OUAIP post a NOFO for this year’s grants. Community partners, such as the ones highlighted above, have demonstrated their abilities to administer similar grant and training programs, filling a critical gap when USDA’s operations are delayed or otherwise hampered by insufficient staffing. 

Congressional leaders in the Senate recognize the potential of community partnerships and have introduced legislation that could increase capacity to OUAIP while maximizing reach of direct-to-farmer investments.

Last month, Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced the Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act, S.4470. This bill seeks to strengthen existing OUAIP services and expand the Office’s reach by supporting ongoing outreach, education, and technical assistance partnerships. 

Specifically, the bill would: 

• direct OUAIP to develop resources and engage local and state USDA Service Centers to serve the unique conservation and business-planning needs of urban and small-scale farmers; 
• expand existing grant eligible entities to include farmer cooperatives; 
• direct formal agreements with community organizations and technical assistance providers that can readily reach farmers; 
• enable subawards so that farmer training and education can be paired with a modest influx of capital to strengthen on-farm impact; and
• secure reliable, mandatory funding of $15 million annually to continue its essential operations.

As the Senate Agriculture Committee prepares to introduce legislation reauthorizing the 2018 Farm Bill, it must provide sufficient resources to meet the new and persistent challenges facing farmers nationwide, including the unique challenges of farmers in urban and suburban areas. The Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act provides a clear pathway to do so.

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