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The US Government is Loaning Millions of Dollars To Jumpstart Urban Farming (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Every year, the US Department of Agriculture devotes millions of dollars to farmers in rural areas. The government is increasingly starting to offer assistance to urban farms, too. In 2016, the USDA funded a dozen urban farms, the highest number in history, Val Dolicini, the administrator for the USDA Farm Services Agency, tells Business Insider. In 2017, he expects the USDA to funnel even more money toward farms on rooftops, in greenhouses, and in warehouses. USDA Microloans, a program that offers funding up to $50,000, is specifically geared toward urban farmers. Established in 2013, the program has awarded 23,000 loans worth $518 million to farms in California, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Though it is open to all farmers, urban farmers often apply for it because it offers the money on a smaller scale than other programs. Seventy percent (or about 16,100 of those loans) have gone to new farmers, many of them in cities.

3 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Waste of money by mingot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Cities are a terrible place to try to grow food. Spend the money doing it where the results are worth the effort. This is almost as bad as solar panels street surfaces.

    1. Re:Waste of money by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Cities are a terrible place to try to grow food. Spend the money doing it where the results are worth the effort.

      That is what they're doing. When the salad mix industry was invented, it wasn't for consumers. It was for food service institutions. Pre-mixed salads didn't appear in stores until much, much later. The majority of what is being grown in the US in cities is greens. The greens are being grown hydroponically in/on vertical towers, which minimizes the use of space. Salad doesn't travel well, and there is typically a lot of waste. Producing it near the point of consumption addresses both of these issues and reduces the cost. Greens are probably the crop most viable in the city, so that's what you'd expect to see produced most, and that's actually what is happening.

      The people behind the modern farm-to-table movement didn't invent it because they wanted to be cool. They were trying to both cut costs and increase quality. Modern food production methods produce an inferior product in the name of convenience. Going back to local production and seasonal vegetables means eating better-quality food. But this is a way of having fresh greens year-round and in fact at a competitive price because so much of the packaging and transport is taken out of the equation.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Are those hipsters on foodstamps? Could be... by mpercy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.salon.com/2010/03/1...

    In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore — equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird — Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric. After gathering ingredients for that evening’s dinner, they walked to the cash register and awaited their moments of truth.

    “I have $80 bucks left!” Magida said. “I’m so happy!”

    “I have $12,” Mak said with a frown.

    The two friends weren’t tabulating the cash in their wallets but what remained of the monthly allotment on their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit cards, the official new term for what are still known colloquially as food stamps.

    Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate, had been installing museum exhibits for a living until the recession caused arts funding — and her usual gigs — to dry up. She applied for food stamps last summer, and since then she’s used her $150 in monthly benefits for things like fresh produce, raw honey and fresh-squeezed juices from markets near her house in the neighborhood of Hampden, and soy meat alternatives and gourmet ice cream from a Whole Foods a few miles away.

    “I’m eating better than I ever have before,” she told me. “Even with food stamps, it’s not like I’m living large, but it helps.”

    Mak, 31, grew up in Westchester, graduated from the University of Chicago and toiled in publishing in New York during his 20s before moving to Baltimore last year with a meager part-time blogging job and prospects for little else. About half of his friends in Baltimore have been getting food stamps since the economy toppled, so he decided to give it a try; to his delight, he qualified for $200 a month.

    “I’m sort of a foodie, and I’m not going to do the ‘living off ramen’ thing,” he said, fondly remembering a recent meal he’d prepared of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes.