Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production News
Opportunities
- Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Program has up to $500 million available for fiscal year 2023. Administration priorities include Urban Agriculture, Climate Smart Agriculture and working with Historically Underserved Farmers and Ranchers. Application deadline: August 18, 2023.
- Agricultural Marketing Service opportunities:
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Indigenous Animals Grant Program provides up to $50 million dollars to support Tribal Nations expand or enhance indigenous animals and meat processing capacity in Indian Country. Application deadline: July 19, 2023.
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Local Meat Capacity Grant Program provides up to $75 million in grants to fund innovative projects designed to build resilience in the meat and poultry supply chain by providing producers with more local processing options and strengthening their market potential. Application deadline: July 19, 2023.
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Organic Market Development Grant has approximately $75 million available to support the development of new and expanded organic markets. Application deadline: August 8, 2023.
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Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI) will provide up to $420 million for states and territories to make competitive Infrastructure Grants subawards to expand aggregation, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution capacity and infrastructure for domestic food and farm businesses. States and territories may also use a limited portion of RFSI funds to conduct complementary supply chain activities that build state-level capacity in local and regional food systems development and support the success of Infrastructure Grant subaward recipients. Start Plan Due Date: August 23, 2023.
Highlights from USDA
- The Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) is on the road! Staff recently traveled to Prince William County, VA and Baltimore, MD to meet with a Composting and Food Waste Reduction recipient and urban ag producers.
- The Prince William County composting site is managed by a private partnership with Freestate Farms, serving almost all counties in Northern VA. The Composting and Food Waste Reduction project facilitated the collection of food scraps at Prince William County Public Schools which continue to utilize the site for the food waste they collect.
- OUAIP met with Acres for Change, Green Street Academy (GSA) Farm students and teachers and Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm in Baltimore to talk about the inspirational work these groups are doing to provide community access to fresh, healthy food (the greens above are from GSA Farm!).
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USDA is transforming the food system for farmers and families through a variety of new programs and funding opportunities. This new interactive infographic details how the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service is implementing these initiatives and building food system resiliency.
- The USDA Farmers Market reopened Friday, June 2! If you are in the D.C. area, stop by on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST at the corner of Independence Ave. and 14th St S.W.
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NRCS Delivering Climate Solutions through the Inflation Reduction Act - the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, Regional Conservation Partnership Program, and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program will all receive funding to increase the reach of their services.
Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Federal Advisory Committee
USDA Seeks Members for Federal Advisory Committee for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production - Nominations will be open to the public from May 15, 2023, to July 15, 2023. The 12-member Committee, which first convened in March 2022, is part of USDA’s efforts to increase support for urban agriculture and innovative production. Members of the Committee provide input on policy development and help identify barriers to urban agriculture as USDA works to promote urban farming and the economic opportunities it provides in cities across the country.
People’s Garden Initiative
- The next segment of the People’s Garden free webinar series is June 22 at 3 p.m. EST, featuring a Pollinator Month webinar celebrating our garden’s most necessary guests, the pollinators! Learn from experts at Xerces Society about ways to improve habitat and encourage the presence of pollinators and beneficial insects in your garden. Registration link can be found at People’s Garden Webinars along with previous webinar recordings.
- In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the renewal of the USDA People’s Garden Initiative, NRCS New York employees and partners collaborated in a spring clean-up. Read more about the working being done to bring community together and provide healthy food.
- The flagship People’s Garden at USDA Headquarters was featured in the Washington Post last month. Read the article.
- The People’s Garden was featured on Heritage Radio Network. Check out the podcast.
What We’re Reading
In Case You Missed It
- In celebration of Pride Month this June🌈, we are highlighting stories of love and community from across the country:
- EPA’s Preventing Wasted Food in Your Community: A Social Marketing Toolkit is now available! The toolkit is a resource for states, territories, local governments, Tribes, and nongovernmental organizations who want to start behavior change campaigns to help prevent food waste in their communities.
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EPA Opens the Fifth Round of Surveys of Anaerobic Digestion Facilities Processing Food Waste in the U.S. The survey is open for anaerobic digestion facilities processing food waste. This is the fifth in EPA’s Anaerobic Digestion Data Collection Project. The survey collects data from three types of facilities: stand-alone digesters, on-farm co-digesters, and water resource recovery facilities with anaerobic digestion that co-digest food waste. For the first time this year, EPA created one survey instead of three to cover all facility types.
Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful dads! We hope you find a special time to enjoy your favorite activity and get spoiled a bit. For your next family outing, consider checking out Recreation.gov for camping, hiking, and other fun outdoor activities.
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