WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and John Fetterman (D-PA) reintroduced the Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act to improve federal support for urban farmers. This bill would strengthen the quality and delivery of technical assistance for urban and innovative producers, allow partnerships with community experts, and expand farmers’ access to grant funding.
“Food security is national security,” said Senator Slotkin. “We must be able to feed ourselves, by ourselves, and that starts with putting American farmers first. By design, the Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act delivers much-needed relief to producers nationwide by expanding grants, increasing funding and resources for our underserved farmers, while also boosting urban farming investment in Detroit and for community gardens in places like Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.”
The Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act increases investment in the USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) through mandatory funding ($15M/FY) to offer this important program a more sustainable funding source. It also makes programmatic reforms to the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) to improve the content and delivery of technical assistance to urban and innovative producers, enables cooperative agreements with community experts, increases access to grant funds directly to farmers, and scales up composting and food waste initiatives.
The bill is also co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-PA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO).
Click here to read the bill text.
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