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Updated January 9, 2017
Expanding Federal Support for Urban Agriculture
Over the past decade, food policy in the United States has
farming now covers a range of operations including vacant
addressed ongoing shifts in consumer preferences and
city lots, city parks, churchyards, schoolyards, backyards,
producer trends that favor local and regional food systems.
and community gardens. Operations may be on private or
This has led to increased agricultural production in urban
public land owned individually or by a community group,
areas within and surrounding major U.S. cities.
institution, municipality, or land trust. Operations may be
managed by a nonprofit organization or private enterprise to
Congress has influenced this shift through various enacted
grow food for sale at retail stores, or they may be smaller-
changes in U.S. farm policy. The previous two farm bills—
sized operations that grow exclusively for sale at farmers’
the Agricultural Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-79) and the Food,
markets or for field-to-direct-sales to consumers, food
Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-246)—
processors, and cottage food makers (home kitchens).
expanded federal support for local and regional food
Among the types of foods grown are row crops (including
systems. These legislative changes, mostly in the form of
medicinal and ornamental plants), fruit trees, and some
new or expanded grants and loans, support urban
types of livestock (e.g., chickens, goats, and honey bees).
agriculture although not explicitly so. Many of these
changes resulted from introduced legislation representing
Urban farming operations, however, can be very diverse in
comprehensive “marker bills” addressing provisions across
terms of the types of systems and practices used. For
multiple farm bill titles, recommending changes to provide
example, increasingly urban agriculture involves large-scale
additional support for local and regional food systems.
innovative systems and capital-intensive operations, vertical
and roof-top farms, hydroponic greenhouses (such as using
In addition to implementing these legislative changes, the
soil-less systems), and aquaponic facilities.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented a
number of agency-wide initiatives to further institutionalize
USDA does not collect comprehensive nationwide data on
these programmatic changes. Its leading initiative—“Know
urban agricultural sites in the United States, and only
Your Farmer, Know Your Food”—was launched in 2009 to
limited information is available for select localities from
eliminate organizational barriers between existing programs
individual case studies of urban agricultural and community
and promote enhanced collaboration within USDA. In
operations in larger cities and broader production regions.
2016, USDA also launched its “Urban Agriculture Toolkit”
Cities with a larger number of urban agricultural operations
to support production and increase access to healthy foods
include Chicago (IL), New York (NY), Philadelphia (PA),
through urban agriculture. During this period, USDA has
Detroit (MI), Oakland (CA), Portland (OR), Cleveland
invested $1 billion in 40,000 projects to develop local and
(OH), Los Angeles (CA), Providence (RI), Seattle (WA),
regional agricultural market opportunities.
San Francisco (CA), Austin (TX), and Minneapolis, MN,
among other areas throughout the country (Figure 1). Some
In anticipation of the 2018 farm bill reauthorization, the
existing or planned large-scale facilities include Grange
Urban Agriculture Act of 2016 (S. 3420, Stabenow) was
Farm and Gotham Greens (New York, NY); Hantz Farms
introduced in the 114th Congress. A similar bill was
(Detroit, MI); Growing Power (Milwaukee, WI, and
introduced in the 113th Congress (H.R. 5616, Kaptur).
Chicago, IL); FarmedHere (Chicago, IL); AeroFarms (New
These bills proposed to expand existing farm programs and
Jersey); and Bright Farms facilities (Illinois, Missouri,
funding, as well as fund new programs and incentives, to
Pennsylvania, and Virginia).
promote urban agriculture (see text box). For example, in
the 114th Congress, S. 3420 would have provided additional
Figure 1. Reported Urban Agriculture Sites
mandatory funding and authorize appropriations to support
competitive grants and research initiatives supporting urban
farming along with expanded risk management tools. It
would have also provided new support for business
planning, composting, community access to healthy foods
and expanded USDA data collection. The expected total
cost of the bill is not available, as the Congressional Budget
Office did not provide a cost estimate.
Urban Agriculture in the United States
In the United States, urban agriculture has evolved over
time, starting with vacant lot cultivation and encompassing
school gardens, the city beautification movement prior to
World War I, Victory gardens during World Wars I and II,
Source: Urban Farming, http://www.urbanfarming.org/garden-
and relief gardens during the Great Depression. Urban
locations.html. Data are self-reported and not comprehensive.
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Expanding Federal Support for Urban Agriculture
Urban Agriculture Act of 2016 (S. 3420)
S. 3240 did not define “urban agriculture” but defined an
“urban farmer” as a beginning farmer or rancher farming in
Create a new USDA “Office of Urban Agriculture” to
an urban area, which would be determined by USDA. H.R.
conduct outreach and/or coordinate policies and activities
5616 defined an “urban farmer or rancher” as a person
Establish an “Urban Agriculture Advisory Committee” to
owning or operating a farm or ranch in an urban area,
advise USDA on urban agricultural production policies
meaning an “area within a Metropolitan Statistical Area”
(MSA) as defined by the Office of Management and Budget
Create USDA grant programs and expand existing grant and
loan programs to benefit urban agriculture
(OMB). OMB’s definition covers areas with at least one
urbanized area of 50,000 people or more plus adjacent
Expand selected existing USDA programs covering risk
territory that is economically connected to the central urban
management, rural development, conservation, and
area. MSAs generally cover a larger geographical area and
agricultural research and cooperative extension programs
likely include some traditionally agricultural areas.
Create new pilot programs targeting soil testing/remediation
Separating out available MSA data to isolate farms in urban
and composting and supporting sustainable practices and
and/or peri-urban areas (referring to areas immediately
access to healthy foods
surrounding a city or town, generally between the suburbs
Articulate “a broadly inclusive description of urban
and rural areas) is difficult given existing data limitations.
agriculture” covering practices such as “edible gardens,
green walls, rooftop agriculture, and indoor vertical farms”
Limited estimates are available from USDA on the number
of U.S. farms within MSAs based on the 2007 Census of
Enhance USDA’s data collection regarding urban agriculture
Agriculture. More recent statistics are not available. USDA
Source: CRS from provisions in S. 3420 (114th Congress).
estimates that there were about 859,300 metropolitan farms
in the United States, accounting for about 40% of all U.S.
Urban farming operations often differ in terms of their
farms and about 40% of the total value of U.S. agricultural
underlying motivations and objectives. Oftentimes, urban
production. USDA reports that metro farms tend to have a
agriculture is not strictly production-oriented. Among the
different product mix than farms in non-metro areas, with
goals are community and economic development, health
mostly high-value crops, such as fruits and vegetables, and
education, access to nutritious foods, sustainable urban
also livestock and dairy products. A subsequent, more
development, environmental protection, and a range of
targeted analysis of the 2007 Census data, compiled by the
social justice and equity concerns. Studies show, for
leading 50 MSAs, suggest that about 6% of U.S. farmland
example, that groups engaged in urban agriculture are
(55 million acres) and 14% of U.S. farms (316,000 farms)
mostly motivated by an interest in community building,
were located in urban and peri-urban areas across 40 states
education, food quality, and sustainability. Urban farming
nationwide. This illustrates that how urban agriculture is
has also been promoted as a means of supporting food
defined could influence what share of the U.S. farming
access to address food insecurity in some urban areas (e.g.,
population is covered by any farm policy changes.
food deserts). However, some question whether urban
farming can be profitable given the costs of land ownership,
Other general observations are as follows. First, some of the
zoning restrictions, energy costs, and other farming inputs.
proposed policies could expand certain existing USDA
Other challenges facing urban operations include access to
programs to specifically include urban agriculture, although
credit and water and lack of infrastructure for marketing
such production is not generally excluded from most USDA
and processing foods grown in urban areas. While
programs and may already be covered (e.g., USDA rural
recognizing that urban farms may provide services other
development, conservation, and research programs).
than food (e.g., education, community building, outdoor
Second, some proposed policies could expand the scope of
recreation), some question whether urban farms can
certain existing USDA programs to include urban
substantially contribute to U.S. food consumption.
agriculture without providing additional program funding
and could dilute coverage for others already covered by the
Defining Urban Farming and Other Considerations
program (e.g., USDA grant and loan programs). Third,
Among the issues that may need to be resolved as Congress
despite an intended focus of urban agriculture, some
considers changes to U.S. farm policy to better support
proposed policies are open-ended and could apply to non-
urban farming is what constitutes “urban agriculture.”
urban agricultural production (e.g., farm credit and risk
Currently, there is no statutory or single formal definition of
management programs). Finally, some proposed policies
urban agriculture. The websites of both USDA and the U.S.
tackle issues that have historically fallen outside the scope
Environmental Protection Agency state: “City and suburban
of U.S. farm policy and the farm bill (e.g., environmental
agriculture takes the form of backyard, roof-top and
quality and remediation, stormwater management, and land
balcony gardening, community gardening in vacant lots and
tenure issues).
parks, roadside urban fringe agriculture and livestock
For more information see CRS Report R43950, Local Food
grazing in open space.” What constitutes urban farming
Systems: Selected Farm Bill and Other Federal Programs;
likely varies depending on the location and level of
and CRS Report R44390, The Role of Local and Regional
development within the population. What constitutes a
Food Systems in U.S. Farm Policy.
“farm” is generally defined as an entity that produces at
least $1,000 annually of agricultural products. This
Renée Johnson, Specialist in Agricultural Policy
definition might exclude some operations that might self-
identify as urban farms, such as some community gardens,
IF10498
very small commercial farms, and nonprofit farms.
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Expanding Federal Support for Urban Agriculture
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