Join the Discussion on Urban Agriculture Recommendations

At its September 17 meeting, the Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Advisory Committee introduced five new recommendations to support urban agriculture. The Committee will revisit them—and may even vote—at its next meeting on September 24.

This is a key moment to make your voice heard. Your input can help shape national policy for urban agriculture. You can share your perspective by emailing the Committee, and in some cases you may also have the chance to give a brief comment during the meeting itself.

Details on how to register, attend online, and submit comments or questions are available in the Federal Register.

Proposed Recommendation #1

Permanent Federal Advisory Committee for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production

Establish a discretionary and permanent federal advisory committee for urban agriculture and innovative production.

Proposed Recommendation #2

Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Grants

Release a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Grants for Fiscal Year 2025

Proposed Recommendation #3

FSA Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Grants

Authorize the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Urban/Suburban County Committee (UCOC) program to be permanent instead of a pilot project and adjust responsibilities of the program to better match existing County Committees.

The current list of 27 cities should have full and active UCOCs. The committees are made up of three to 11 members who serve three-year terms.
Resources to support the operations and activities of UCOCs should be provided by FSA.
Collaboration and engagement with local FSA Urban Service Center staff should be supported by FSA and NRCS.

Proposed Recommendation #4

USDA Urban Service Centers: Urban Agriculture Technical Assistance

Integrate dedicated USDA staff with specialized technical expertise in the USDA Urban Service Centers where the Urban County Committees (UCOC) are, to improve technical assistance, outreach, and opportunities relevant to urban agriculture and innovation producers/growers.

Staff should make joint site visits to urban farms with other FSA and NRCS Service Center representatives to provide specific guidance on indoor or other emerging production practices.
Staff should provide specific guidance to eligible urban farmer entities to help them better apply for FSA and NRCS programs such as establishing a farm record and applying for program support.
Solidify engagement with staff and UCOC Board Committees to gather insight and feedback on needed modifications to FSA and NRCS program eligibility guidelines and resources in the service centers to better serve the breadth of urban agriculture and innovative growers and producers.
Solidify formal partnerships with community-based organizations and technical assistance providers to expand the impact of Urban Service Centers’ outreach and work with demonstration farms for more hands-on, peer-to-peer technical assistance.

Proposed Recommendation #5

Proposal for Grant Funding to Build Evidence-Based Urban Agriculture Programs

The Committee recognizes that urban agriculture has the potential to contribute significantly to economic and workforce development, youth education, healthy food access, and community health. However, the current evidence base is fragmented and insufficient to guide both large-scale federal programs and policies and local policies, programs, and businesses. To ensure that future investments are effective, scalable, and grounded in data, the Committee emphasizes the need for dedicated research funding, structured pilot programs with strong evaluation components, and improved national data collection.

The Committee recommends that USDA, in coordination with HHS and DOE, establish integrated research and education competitive grant programs to support rigorous research on the impacts of urban agriculture on youth education, community development, workforce development, food access, and health outcomes.
The Committee recommends that federal agencies fund pilot programs in urban agriculture that require partnerships between community organizations and institutions of higher education with built-in evaluation components, ensuring that findings generate reliable evidence to inform future program development and federal policy guidance.
The Committee recommends that USDA expand national data collection efforts, including through ERS and the Census of Agriculture, to quantify the scope of urban agriculture activities, practices and outcomes, and to support partnerships with universities and Extension for longitudinal and generalizable research.

Advocating for Permanent Urban Agriculture Committee

Today the Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Federal Advisory Committee is holding the second of 3 meetings to be held this year. In the first meeting, last week, they took oral public comments. I requested that they make the Committee permanent rather than requiring that it be renewed every two years as is currently the case.

I requested that they make the Committee permanent rather than requiring that it be renewed every two years as is currently the case.

At today’s meeting, in progress as I type, Committee members are presenting draft recommendations on which they’ll vote at next week’s meeting, the last for the year. Guess what the first recommendation was:

Woohoo! See, I told you they listen to public comments. They also pay attention to comments submitted by mail. More info here.

To be continued…

Urban Farming Advocacy: Connect with USDA’s UAIPAC

The Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Advisory Committee (UAIPAC) needs to hear from people who care about resilient, equitable food systems in cities. Public comments shape its recommendations—and those recommendations shape USDA policy. This is an opportunity for us to strengthen and expand the role of the USDA in supporting urban agriculture and city food systems.

UAIPAC will hold three meetings this month, their first meetings this year:

9/10/25, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. PT

9/17/25, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. PT

9/24/25, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. PT

Registration details can be found at: https://www.usda.gov/ partnerships/federal-advisory-committee-urban-ag

UAIPAC needs our help. This committee was created in the last Farm Bill (2018) along with the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. For the first time urban agriculture has a strong, clear presence in the USDA. Unfortunately, the new efforts haven’t been well-funded, and progress has faltered.

Two papers have outlined issues faced in the implementation of urban ag policy within the USDA. Read them in in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development:

“…we call for consistent, permanent funding that is not subject to the annual federal budget process, which could power more tailored technical assistance programs, reformed granting initiatives, and expanded data collection to inform future policy and practice.”

Sustainable agriculture impacts in urban settings make the case for federal investments

This next paper provides “…a set of policy recommendations to improve UA and USDA programs, including as they intersect with the imperative for racial equity…”

Racial equity and the USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture’s granting program and urban offices

I’ve observed several implementation issues.

OUAIP: Underfunded, still running pilot programs, and without a permanent director since May.
Advisory Committee: Down a member, meets irregularly, and must be reauthorized every two years. Unlike the National Organic Standards Board (another federal advisory committee of the USDA), it isn’t permanent.
Urban County Committees: Intended to connect city farmers with USDA, but still pilots—just 27 exist nationwide.
Urban Service Centers: Designed to help with city-specific challenges (land, water, zoning, soil contamination). Only 17 exist, and some are already faltering. In Los Angeles, for example, the planned center never opened.

There’s work to be done. Don’t let urban ag’s representation in the USDA falter.

Attend a meeting. Speak up. Help keep urban agriculture alive at the federal level.

Farm-to-School Networking Event

Free, in-person event Oct 16 for LA area urban farmers and representatives from local school districts:

Part 1: Cultivating Farmers | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) will talk about selling food to school districts. You will have the opportunity to connect with school reps. Farmers and school reps are invited to come and do some fast-paced networking!

Part 2: USDA-Farm Service Agency Workshop | 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Urban growers across Los Angeles and Orange County, hear from the USDA – Farm Services Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Services team about programs and resources to support your work. Network with other growers, get answers to your questions about the different USDA programs available and register with FSA.

https://www.goodfoodla.org/food-day-series

Building a Local Food System in Greater Los Angeles

The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is opening a new office in Compton to support urban agriculture in the greater Los Angeles region, and they’re establishing a committee to help.

They’re calling it a committee, but I think of it as a mechanism for Greater LA ag people to meet, listen to each other, find common cause, and work together to grow food and feed people. And please note: “Greater LA includes Los Angeles County and the more urbanized northern portion of Orange County. The USDA will dispense advice and help fund projects; that’s certainly worth a lot. But if we’re lucky, the committee will form a stable platform for people to meet, converse, plan, build relationships and get fruitful things done.

If you’re a farmer, run a food bank, work with community gardens, do community composting, run a farm-to-school program, manage a hydroponic farm, or teach or do research in any of these or related areas, and you’re working in an urban area of Los Angeles or Orange Counties, you may be eligible.

The deadline to apply is April 14. Call now for more information:

Brooke Raffaele

State Outreach Coordinator

California Farm Service Agency

U.S. Department of Agriculture

(530) 219-7747

“The urban and suburban county committees will work to encourage and promote urban, indoor, and other emerging agricultural production practices. Additionally, the county committees may address areas such as food access, community engagement, support of local activities to promote and encourage community compost, and food waste reduction.”

https://www.fsa.usda.gov/news-room/county-committee-elections/index