Urban farmers often find themselves competing with developers and navigating restrictive zoning laws just to provide fresh produce for their families and communities.
Now, a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to terminate the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access award has eliminated another source of support.
The program funded locally-led projects for new, aspiring, and underserved producers across 40 U.S. states. According to Politico, the terminations amount to nearly $300 million nationwide.
One of the organizations affected was Cultivate KC, which was in the middle of implementing projects it already planned.
Brien Darby, executive director of Cultivate KC, reported losing $2.5 million that was used for purchasing, developing, and maintaining farmland, as well as launching KC Farm Link, an initiative designed to connect landowners with farmers seeking land.
“It was heartbreaking,” Darby told KCUR’s Up to Date. “We had been working on it for a while and waiting on it, and we wanted to see it through to the end. It's something that's much needed for small farms.”
The USDA said the award did not align with the Trump administration’s views on diversity, and that the program was not effectively using funds.
“We don't call the producers we work with underserved. They're just the people who happen to be growing food in our community, and we want to support them,” Darby said. “It feels that's where some of the confusion comes. The USDA tells us that we have to work with a population, and then we get penalized for working with that population.”
- Brien Darby, executive director of Cultivate KC
- Robin Moore, owner of MyCo Planet
