Other Ag News:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) spends roughly $4 billion buying food at the lowest price possible, and American family farmers are locked out due to high volume and complex federal contracting requirements. Yet there is a low-cost policy solution that would unlock this existing funding source for more farmers to compete.
NSAC members National Farm to School Network, Center for Good Food Purchasing, Food Corps, and National Young Farmers Coalition, in partnership with Friends of the Earth, Chef Ann Foundation, and Scratchworks, have heard demands from school nutritionists, farmers, and local food distributors. Farmers want reliable local markets, and schools want fresh, reliable, nutritious foods to serve to students. A school district in Arkansas noted, Produce purchased through broadline distributors is not as fresh as items grown and sourced locally.
More than 450 schools, farmers, and nutrition organizations are requesting that Congressional agricultural leaders authorize schools to use their entitlement funding to purchase from their local farmers and ranchers. Read more below in a cross-post from the National Farm to School Network.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJune 10 – As the Senate prepares to release its Farm Bill text, a group of 450 organizations submitted a letter urging Congress to improve the National School Lunch Program for farmers and schools through a new “Local Food Purchase Option.” This policy solution would create a new pathway in the USDA Foods program that would allow schools to use existing entitlement funding on minimally processed, locally sourced food. School districts, farmers, aggregators, parents, and nonprofits from 43 states and Washington D.C. have signed on in support. Together, they back this commonsense solution to benefit small and mid-sized American farmers and ranchers while improving school meal quality for students.
Red Tape, Rising Costs, and the Case for Change30 million children benefit from the National School Lunch Program each day. As part of this program, schools receive entitlement funding that they spend on commodity foods purchased by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This accounts for 15-20% of the food on students’ lunch trays, amounting to approximately $1.6 billion each year. However, many schools would prefer having the option to spend this entitlement funding on fresh, local foods, which they are limited by within the current program.
“We are surrounded by cattle farms and produce farms but don’t have the funds to work in partnership with them. Being able to use all or part of our entitlement funds towards a partnership would be a dream” says Janene Hatton of Scott County Schools in Kentucky. “The freshest food is transported within a few miles instead of being processed hundreds or thousands of miles away before reaching the plates—that’s the way it should be!”
While there is interest, red tape and large volume requirements largely exclude family farms from participating in the USDA Foods programs. “We are a large-scale greenhouse grower of hydroponic lettuce in Central Mississippi and would like the opportunity to supply our schools with fresh, healthy chemical-free lettuce. The current local produce to school program makes it difficult to meet the requirements of supplying the entire state,” says Leigh Bailey of Salad Days, LLC, referring to the USDA DoD Fresh program, one of USDA’s current entitlement programs that allows schools to purchase fresh produce.
Connecting small and mid-size farmers to schools is more important now than ever. According to the American Farm Bureau Foundation, the farm bankruptcy rate increased by 46% in 2025 compared to 2024. School nutrition programs can provide a lifeline and stable revenue source for these farmers, as was demonstrated by USDA’s COVID-19 era Local Food for Schools (LFS) program. However, the second round slated to bring $660 million over three years directly into the hands of family farmers was terminated in March 2025.
“When the LFS grant program was active, we built a network and strong relationships with schools across the state of Arkansas” says John Wahrmund of Wahrmund Farms in Arkansas, who scaled up his farm after USDA announced the second round of LFS. “We invested in a large walk-in freezer to keep inventory and meet the needs of school nutrition services in a timely manner. We received extremely positive feedback about our beef, and know that programs found our product superior, our service superior, and student participation increased. Schools would love to purchase from us and other local food producers if funding were accessible. These purchases would support our family farm, our local processors, and our schools fueling our local economy. Local food purchasing is a win across the board for farmers, schools, and communities.”
Rising food costs are making it harder for school nutrition professionals to maintain these connections, keep quality food on the menu, and reduce the use of ultra-processed foods. Like Janene Hatton from Kentucky, many simply want more flexibility in how they can spend the funds they already have.
The Opportunity for Action Through the Farm BillSignatories of this letter see a clear solution: open a new optional pathway within the existing USDA Foods program for schools to divert a portion of their entitlement funds to spend on local, fresh, and minimally processed foods. States can design their programs to best suit their contexts, whether through subawards to schools, contracts with food hubs, or a statewide solicitation for local food. This concept is modeled after the successful Local Food for Schools program, but without the same price tag, since the funds are already there.
“Our food hub experienced a loss of $500,000 per year when the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance programs were canceled,” says Peter Kraus of Iowa Food Hub. “Schools tell us they loved our products, but would not continue to purchase without the incentives. We can grow the food system when there are reliable markets.”
If just 10% of Iowa’s entitlement funds were diverted through this program, it would direct $1.9 million of existing federal funds to local farms and generate $3.3 million in local economic activity, according to National Farm to School Network’s calculator.
Authors of this letter call on the Senate Agriculture Committee to create this new pathway in their version of the Farm Bill. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) has said that the Committee will be introducing text in June.
“Many of our Network Partners, particularly schools, have wanted this pathway for decades. As we continue to advocate for dedicated funds to support local food purchases, more flexibility with entitlement funds is yet another solution to enhance the school food marketplace for family farmers” says Jessica Gudmundson, Executive Director of the National Farm to School Network. As the letter states, “this is a rare bipartisan opportunity to cut red tape, invest in American family farmers, and give schools the flexibility to build stronger local food economies.” With the Farm Bill window open, now is the time to act.
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About USDA Entitlement Local Purchase Option
You can learn more about the USDA Entitlement Local Purchase Option, read the letter, sign-on in support, and estimate the impacts to your state by visiting the website here: https://www.farmtoschool.org/policy/usda-entitlement-local-food-purchase-option
About National Farm to School Network
National Farm to School Network is the leading voice for the U.S. farm to school and farm to early care and education movement, working as an information, advocacy and networking hub for communities to bring local food sourcing, gardens, and food and agriculture education into schools and early care and education settings. Learn more at: http://farmtoschool.org.
Media Contact: info@farmtoschool.org
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Washington, D.C. – June 12, 2026 – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the distribution of a comprehensive directive to all U.S. Forest Service employees from the Office of the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment (NRE).
Editor’s Note: This series draws on analysis the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) conducted in partnership with Bernie Kluger, Managing Partner at Prospect Partners, LLC.
Bernie has led strategic realignments, crisis recoveries, and major capacity-building initiatives in government, higher education, and the private sector. Prior to joining Prospect Partners, Bernie served as enterprise lead for organizational effectiveness and workforce development at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). At USDA, Bernie tackled complex multi-stakeholder negotiations that delivered results for the public, including a nationwide hiring surge that powered a $40 billion expansion in operational capacity. Bernie holds a B.S. in Political Economy from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. He lives in Washington, DC.
This blog post is the second in a series updating analysis on the widespread staffing crisis across the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), focusing on the Natural Resources Conservation Service. While our previous post showed that every USDA agency lost staff during 2025, staff losses in direct farmer- and rancher-serving offices are particularly concerning as America’s farmers grapple with severe and ongoing economic and weather disruptions.
Staff in the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) work directly with farmers, providing technical assistance, financial support, and guidance to navigate the suite of programs offered by the agency. Losses in these direct farmer-serving agencies mean that US farmers, ranchers, and landowners have fewer experts in their communities to turn to for assistance. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) urges Congress to prioritize restoring NRCS field staff capacity, as farmers facing increasingly unpredictable weather impacts cannot afford to lose the local conservation expertise they depend on to build environmentally and economically resilient operations.
Conservation Staff DepletedNRCS lost 23% of its staff between January 2025 and January 2026. NRCS staff work directly with farmers and landowners to identify conservation practices that are well-suited to their needs and local natural resource concerns. They provide vital technical assistance for farmers and landowners and help them apply for and manage contracts with conservation programs that help share the cost of conservation practices.
The NRCS staff position that experienced the largest losses was Soil Conservationist, with a loss of 711 Soil Conservationists during the time period and an additional 283 Soil Conservation Technicians. Soil Conservationists are the primary field staff who work directly with landowners on conservation planning and implementation, and Technicians provide field-level support for conservation work, often handling site assessments, measurements, and installation oversight alongside Soil Conservationists.
Examining NRCS staff losses at the county level shows more clearly how many US farmers, ranchers, and landowners now lack access to local NRCS staff in their counties. In January 2025, 2,386 counties across the US had NRCS staff working in their local county office. By January 2026, 141 of those counties had lost 100% of their NRCS staff. This means that farmers and landowners in those counties lost staff with local relationships and local knowledge, and that the remaining NRCS staff are now stretched thin over larger geographic areas.
The map below shows the NRCS staffing levels for every county and the change from January 2025 to January 2026, using data from the Office of Personnel Management.
Figure 1: County-Level NRCS Staffing Losses (Jan 2025-Jan 2026)
Major agricultural states in the Midwest and West lost the most NRCS staff during 2025. The largest staffing losses were in Texas (144), Kansas (127), Missouri (105), Wisconsin (100), and Colorado (99). States with smaller starting NRCS staff saw deeper percentage declines, with the largest in Rhode Island (44%), New York (38%), Colorado (36%), and Maine (35%). Kansas, Massachusetts, Arizona, and Florida all lost 34% of their NRCS staff.
Figure 2: Top 10 States with NRCS Staff Losses (Jan 2025-Jan 2026)
Source: Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Loss of Key Conservation PositionsThe picture sharpens further when looking specifically at five specific occupations most central to NRCS’s conservation mission: Soil Conservation, Soil Conservation Technicians, Soil Science, Agronomy, and Rangeland Management. Together, these occupations lost 1,178 employees in 2025, nearly one in five positions. One hundred thirty-nine counties with at least one employee in these key roles in January 2025 had none by January 2026. Kansas lost key conservation staff in 15 counties; Indiana and Texas each lost coverage in 10. Georgia, while not among the top states for total job losses, lost all key conservation staff in 9 counties — a pattern of losses spread thinly across many locations rather than concentrated in larger offices, leaving widespread gaps in local coverage across the state.
Farmers Feel the Impacts of Staffing LossThe consequences of these staffing losses are already reducing farmer access to conservation programs. According to a recent analysis by NSAC member organization the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), acceptance rates for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) dropped sharply in fiscal year 2025. Only about 24% of EQIP applicants and 37% of CSP applicants were awarded contracts in FY2025 — a steep drop from FY2024, when approximately 43% of EQIP applicants and 54% of CSP applicants received contracts. NRCS staff are essential at every step of that process: they help farmers understand which programs fit their operations, support them through the application, and provide the technical assistance needed to implement and manage contracts. Fewer staff means longer waits, fewer applications processed, and more farmers left without the conservation support they need.
Staff Losses Mean Less Support for FarmersThe loss of nearly a quarter of NRCS staff in a single year, including over 700 Soil Conservationists and Technicians, is not an abstraction. These are the people farmers call when they want to plant a cover crop, design a nutrient management plan, or try to navigate a conservation program contract. Their absence means longer wait times, fewer site visits, and reduced access to the technical assistance that makes conservation programs work. With 141 counties now entirely without local NRCS staff, the support net for America’s farmland has real and growing holes.
Congress must act to restore NRCS staffing capacity before these losses become permanent. Farmers and ranchers across the country are navigating an era of unprecedented natural disasters, from severe drought to catastrophic flooding, and they need the support of local conservation experts who know their land, their operations, and their communities. NSAC urges Congress to prioritize restoring NRCS field staff, with particular attention to rebuilding the positions that form the backbone of conservation delivery. Every county that loses its last NRCS employee loses irreplaceable local knowledge, and the farmers in that county lose a critical partner in building the resilience their operations depend on.
The post USDA Staffing Crisis: Widespread Loss of Conservation Staff appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
Editor’s Note: This series draws on analysis the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) conducted in partnership with Bernie Kluger, Managing Partner at Prospect Partners, LLC.
Bernie has led strategic realignments, crisis recoveries, and major capacity-building initiatives in government, higher education, and the private sector. Prior to joining Prospect Partners, Bernie served as enterprise lead for organizational effectiveness and workforce development at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). At USDA, Bernie tackled complex multi-stakeholder negotiations that delivered results for the public, including a nationwide hiring surge that powered a $40 billion expansion in operational capacity. Bernie holds a B.S. in Political Economy from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. He lives in Washington, DC.
The past sixteen months have seen an unprecedented staffing crisis unfurl across the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This blog post offers a fresh look at the depth and breadth of the ongoing staffing crisis, as well as updates on previously reported nationwide staff cuts across other USDA agencies. A second post examines the deep losses sustained by the farmer-serving staff of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and a third uses previously unpublished data on Farm Service Agency (FSA) County employees to examine the devastating losses of local county staff.
Analysis of federal personnel data from the US Office of Personnel Management confirms widespread headcount reductions across all USDA agencies, with the exception of staffing increases in the immediate office of the Agriculture Secretary, which grew by 18% in 2025. NSAC urges Congress to use every available tool to address the USDA staffing crisis and pass a bipartisan farm bill that restores the department’s capacity to serve farmers and rural communities.
USDA Impact: Staffing Declines Across All Agencies, Staffing Increase in the Immediate Office of the SecretaryBetween January 2025 and January 2026, USDA lost approximately 20,000 employees, according to staffing data published by the US Office of Personnel Management. Every USDA agency was affected, and staff losses were spread across the entire nation. Our analysis attributes the majority of staff losses (~15,000) to the so-called Deferred Resignation Program, a program run by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to encourage federal employees to voluntarily leave their positions.
On July 24, 2025 US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins released a memo (SM-1078-015) announcing a planned reorganization of the department, drafted without consultation with farmers, Congress, or other stakeholders. After stakeholders responded with widespread concern, the Secretary announced an ad hoc, informal opportunity to comment on the reorganization, which generated 46,845 responses. According to USDA’s own analysis, 82% of comments were negative, expressing serious concerns with the reorganization. Major themes of concern included the loss of local oversight and expertise, reduction in personnel and resources, and a desire for adequate staffing in every county.
Despite these overwhelmingly negative responses and continued concern from stakeholders about local presence, the Secretary has continued to move forward with the reorganization plan that would relocate agency headquarters and leadership. Thus far, reorganization plans have been announced for the Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services agency; Food Safety and Inspection Service; Research, Education, and Economics mission area; and the Forest Service. Reporting on employee reactions to the reorganization plan suggests that relocation will lead to further staff losses, exacerbating the existing USDA staffing crisis with negative consequences for farmer and rancher-facing services. A recent survey by the American Federation of Government Employees, for example, found that 76% of its members do not plan to relocate when required by the reorganization plan and would instead leave their positions.
Staff Losses Are NationwideWhile Secretary Rollins and other headquarters leadership have attempted to frame the USDA reorganization as moving staff out of DC and closer to farmers, the reality is the vast majority of USDA staff already work outside of DC. In January 2025, just 3.24% of all USDA employees worked in Washington, DC. By January 2026, after massive staff losses, still just 3.56% of all USDA employees worked in DC. In reality, 98% of the USDA staff lost between January 2025 and January 2026 were outside of Washington, DC (19,259 employees).
The map below shows the percentage and number of USDA staff lost in each state between January 2025 and January 2026.
Figure 1: USDA Staff Losses January 2025-January 2026
Every state and territory lost USDA staff during this time period. The states that lost the highest number of staff were: Maryland (1,411), California (1,080), Texas (925), Virginia (896), Colorado (850), Oregon (682), New Mexico (640), Kansas (559), Georgia (546), and Missouri (514).
The relative impact of staffing losses was unevenly spread, with multiple states losing over 20% of staff. The 10 states experiencing the largest percentage staff losses include: Maryland (41%), Rhode Island (41%), Virginia (37%), Maine (29%), Alaska (29%), Kansas (28%), Massachusetts (27%), Vermont (27%), New York (25%), and Florida (24%).
Figure 2: Top 10 States with USDA Staff Losses (Jan 2025-Jan 2026)
Source: Office of Personnel Management (OPM), FSA County staff provided via FOIA on April 8, 2026 Loss of Experienced StaffUSDA also experienced a dramatic loss of highly experienced and skilled staff. Between January 2025 and January 2026, the number of staff with more than ten years of service declined by nearly 7,000 (from 45,247 in 2025 to just 38,291 in 2026). These experienced mid and late-career staff carry irreplaceable institutional knowledge that supports the functioning of the department.
Every USDA Agency Lost StaffWhile the overall loss of 1 in 5 USDA employees is already staggering, some departmental agencies had even more significant staffing losses. The Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE) lost more than half of its staff (55%), the Office of Budget and Program Analysis (OBPA) lost 41%, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) 40%, Rural Development (RD) 36%, and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) 36%. Staff losses at NIFA are particularly troubling, with the Government Accountability Office reporting lingering negative impacts on productivity following a previous relocation in 2019 of the agency to Kansas City, MO.
Table 1: USDA Staff Losses by Agency (Jan 2025-Jan 2026)
USDA AgencyJan-25Jan-26% Staff LossOffice Of Partnerships And Public Engagement5324-55%Office Of Budget And Program Analysis5935-41%National Institute Of Food And Agriculture473284-40%Rural Development4,8733,097-36%National Agricultural Statistics Service781498-36%FPAC Business Center1,5941,030-35%Departmental Administration507330-35%Food And Nutrition Service1,8341,202-34%Civil Rights14897-34%Economic Research Service292198-32%Agricultural Research Service7,1094,916-31%Office Of Communications4029-28%National Appeals Division6648-27%Office Of The Chief Financial Officer989730-26%Office Of The Chief Economist6750-25%Office Of The Chief Information Officer1,5851,191-25%Foreign Agricultural Service713543-24%Office Of The General Counsel275210-24%Natural Resources Conservation Service11,8619,078-23%Animal And Plant Health Inspection Se..8,6726,663-23%Farm Service Agency (Federal)3,2842,604-21%Homeland Security Staff5746-19%Risk Management Agency418351-16%Forest Service31,25726,260-16%Office Of The Inspector General422359-15%Agricultural Marketing Service4,4783,890-13%Food Safety And Inspection Service8,3107,444-10%Farm Service Agency (County)76727022-8%Office Of The Secretary Of Agriculture9711418%Total97,98678,343-20%Source: Office of Personnel Management (OPM), FSA County staff provided via FOIA on April 8, 2026The current Administration’s impact on the “People’s Agency” is clear: USDA has lost one in five of its employees in just twelve months, with the overwhelming majority of cuts to staff capacity and expertise happening at the state and county level. The reorganization plan now underway risks transforming a shortfall into a crisis, as the majority of employees subject to relocation requirements have indicated they would leave the agency rather than uproot their lives and families to move. The posts that follow examine in greater detail the losses sustained by two agencies with the most direct farmer-facing roles: the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Farm Service Agency.
Congress must treat the collapse of USDA’s workforce as a crisis that can be averted. With one in five USDA employees gone in a single year and reorganization plans poised to drive further departures, lawmakers must use every available lever to reverse course. America’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities are facing serious challenges, and they need a USDA that is fully staffed and fully functional.
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As Special Envoy, Rich will serve as a leading advocate for America’s farmers, ranchers, and private landowners, helping ensure their concerns are heard and their rights are protected. He will engage directly with landowners across the country and work to address challenges posed by government overreach, activist pressure campaigns, and outside interests that threaten private property rights and the long-term viability of rural communities.
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 8, 2026 — Today U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced President Donald J. Trump has appointed John Bellinger as the new Senior Advisor for New World Screwworm Preparedness. In this role, Bellinger will integrate into USDA’s team to help further drive its robust effort to explore all available technologies to combat the New World Screwworm.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Zaks
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
lzaks@sustainableagriculture.net
Tel. 347.563.6408
Comment: USDA Small Processor Plan Highlights Recent Work, Future OpportunitiesWashington, DC, June 5, 2026 – Today, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) commends the release of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Small Processors Action Plan by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. The plan highlights previous and potential future actions by USDA to protect and promote Small and Very Small meat processors.
In the Action Plan, USDA highlights its work on the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Overtime and Holiday Fee Reduction Program for Small and Very Small Establishments. The Plan also highlights a small expansion of the state Meat and Poultry Inspection (MPI) program, an NSAC priority. Continued expansion of the program, and the associated Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) should also be invested in as they increase markets for small and very small processors in a fiscally sound way.
“The success of Small and Very Small processors is critical to the success of our rural communities and agricultural system. NSAC appreciates USDA’s cross agency attention to Small and Very Small plant issues, and encourages the Department to invest in further stakeholder engagement and input. By expanding and refocusing Small Plant Roundtables exclusively on Small & Very Small plants, and implementing recommendations to improve outreach and reduce barriers for these plants, USDA can take critical next steps for improving Small Processors viability. We look forward to engaging with them as they do so,” commented Connor Kippe, NSAC Policy Specialist.
Some of the next steps FSIS should pursue from the 2020 Report on Outreach to Small and Very Small Processors include studying inspection decisions and enforcement actions across circuits, districts, and inspectors. Similarly, the National Advisory Committee in 2023 and 2024 offered in the Meat & Poultry Inspection Recommendations support continued investment in technical assistance not included in the Action Plan.
NSAC looks forward to ensuring these reforms become mandatory and continued in perpetuity by the inclusion of all components of the Strengthening Local Processing Act in a new farm bill.
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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net
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(WASHINGTON, D.C., June 4, 2026) – Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is launching the transformation of over 130 loan and grant systems that support farmers, ranchers, and rural communities into one modern platform built for the 21st century. After reviewing capabilities and options, today the USDA is moving forward with the next step in Loan Modernization implementation to replace outdated and inefficient legacy systems.
Urban farms not only grow food, but they also build community, create green space, and increase access to healthy food. Yet, farmers in urban and suburban areas are not immune to the pressures of higher input costs and competition for resources. These issues simply present in different ways. Farmers in more residentially dense areas feel the pressure of development and competition for land, resulting in tenuous land access or complicated zoning ordinances; access to safe water for irrigation can be extremely costly or entirely reliant on rainwater; the smaller size of their business can make it difficult to benefit from bulk purchases in the same way as traditional farming operations.
These issues are more common among farms than expected. Analysis of 2022 Agricultural Census data — overlaid with USDA Economic Research Service Rural-Urban Continuum Codes — shows that 839,049 farms are located in metro counties, and another 708,857 operate in non-metro counties adjacent to metro areas. Altogether, more than 1.5 million farms face unique urban and suburban pressures that farmers located outside these areas do not face.
The 2018 Farm Bill took significant steps to dedicate US Department of Agriculture (USDA) resources to addressing these challenges by creating the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP). Since its creation, OUAIP has quickly implemented programming, grants, and cooperative agreements. These activities have provided vital support to urban farmers while identifying new and ongoing barriers for the upcoming farm bill reauthorization to address.
USDA Offices Meet Farmers Where They AreThe creation of the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production stole the spotlight of the 2018 Farm Bill, understandably so since it has invested over $85 million through 199 grants and 146 cooperative agreements across 43 states and Puerto Rico since 2020. However, an often overlooked win in the farm bill was the creation of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Urban County Committees and their respective USDA Service Centers.
Local USDA Service Centers are essential for farmers to access resources. Oftentimes, they serve as the primary point of service for farmers seeking support from USDA. In an effort to ensure Centers respond to the unique needs of the geographical regions they serve, farmers also elect their peers to serve on FSA County Committees. These committees ensure farmer representation in local decision-making that affects the delivery of services in the area. This model was authorized in 1935. Today, nearly 2,300 Centers are nestled within farming communities nationwide, and since 2020, USDA has named 27 new FSA Urban County Committees and corresponding service centers to specifically serve farmers in urban and suburban settings. The map below shows the locations of all 27 FSA Urban County Committees.
Partnerships Expedite Implementation and Increase ReachIn an effort to strengthen new Service Centers and Urban County Committees, FSA has partnered with community organizations to provide technical assistance and conduct farmer outreach to promote FSA resources to farmers who have less experience navigating USDA services. In 2023, FSA entered into dozens of new Urban Agriculture Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance cooperative agreements with community-based technical assistance providers. Agreements varied in scope to respond to unique geographic needs, but all maintained key elements:
- assisting farmers with required FSA annual reporting;
- providing business planning;
- matching technical assistance with a micro-grant that corresponds with their business growth goals.
Several National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members across the country received agreements, including Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Farm to Table New Mexico, PASA Sustainable Agriculture, Sprout, Renewing the Countryside, and Cultivate Kansas City, while many more partnered closely with cooperators. The map below shows the location of NSAC members with FSA cooperative agreements to support urban farmers.
In order to reach farmers, organizations developed curricula, technical guides, and organized services via group settings or 1-1 services. While many USDA Urban Service Centers were slow to open their doors, these local partners scheduled farm visits, hosted community events, and ensured services were accessible to all interested farmers. Organizations offered traditional farm technical assistance such as help filing for a farm number, acreage reporting, and production planning, along with contextual support to navigate local zoning restrictions and access city utilities.
Due to the distinct challenges of urban settings, farmers are often proactively addressing these concerns. As a result, organizations often found that farmers were more than ready for education and training on topics such as sustainable pest management, urban landscaping, water runoff management, rainwater collection, compost infrastructure and management, and soil health through cover crops and other techniques.
Partnerships Remove Barriers to Capital AccessOne key element of the Urban Agriculture Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance agreements was the inclusion of subawards in the form of micro-grants to farmers. Capital access for new, beginning, and small farm operations can be difficult due to limited revenue history, lack of collateral, or small initial profit projections. These challenges for urban farmers can be exacerbated by limited land ownership and competitiveness in limited USDA annual funding pools.
To address these challenges, many organizations allocated a portion of their organizational funding for implementing micro-grant awards to producers. Since these same partners were intimately involved in business development and planning with the farmers, the awards were well timed and led to sizeable impact.
One Cooperator – Farm to Table New Mexico – shared that their competitive micro-grant application process was designed to support farmers in increasing their production capacity. All the recipients operate with a gross cash income of $250,000 or less annually. They focused on supporting capacity building for a diverse range of small-scale producers in urban communities as an important investment in the state’s food ecosystem that will help deliver locally grown and nutritious products directly to urban communities. Because Farm to Table is deeply engaged with technical assistance for urban producers, they were well equipped to support farmers in the application process and identify which applications would be most impactful.
Farm to Table implemented 3 years of grant cycles, funding 40 projects for a total of $341,961 directly invested in local farming operations. One project included funding for the Williams Family Farm, which operates the region’s only winter tomato production using natural and organic practices. They quickly exceeded their own capacity after they launched winter operations. Grant funds supported the construction of a third winter greenhouse, enabling the farm to supply all San Juan County schools and day care centers through the New Mexico Grown program.
Similarly, Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) awarded 52 microgrants across seven California counties valued at $607,500. Microgrant awards were primarily used for production supplies, infrastructure, and associated labor costs. Project examples include refrigeration for farmstand and wholesale operations, irrigation installation and automation for seedlings, compost systems, and more. 85% of farms that received these micro-grants sell their produce in communities with greater need, such as to seniors and low-income families.
One project that received CAFF funding was Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont (LEAF), which used their grant to purchase a small, used tractor with a front loader to improve the efficiency of their operation. This purchase facilitated tasks such as mulching, composting, and planting. The tractor greatly expanded their operational footprint from .33 acre to 1.3 acres while supporting their mission of increasing food production for underserved families and fostering community resilience. A before and after funding photo is below.
Farmers from other regions have shared additional details about their individual experience.
With the micro-grant, I was able to update the irrigation, seed container, tools, and plumbing in the farm. I really enjoyed how simple the application process was, and it was useful for our small farm,” shared a 9th Ward community garden in New Orleans.
In Kansas City, Ophelia’s Blue Vine Farm was funded to upgrade their greenhouse to increase year-round production capabilities. It is estimated that improvements will increase yield in the greenhouse by 20-30%. These upgrades will improve insulation, extend the growing season, and lower energy costs, creating a more efficient and sustainable system for growing fresh, affordable food in Kansas City’s 18th & Vine District.
Photo Credit: Mike Rollen, Ophelia’s Blue Vine Farm The Case for Ongoing Investments in PartnershipsThe Urban Agriculture Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance agreements have been instrumental in introducing new services and processes for farmers unfamiliar with USDA services. The timing of these agreements led to even greater impact due to the high turnover in local field office staffing in the past fourteen months. FSA lost 21% of its federal staff between January 2025 and January 2026 and an additional 8% of its FSA county staff during the same time period. The loss of these FSA staff makes it even more difficult for urban farmers to get the support they need. Partnership agreements such as these provide continuity of services from trusted partners that can help support farmers and USDA staff alike.
Relatedly, despite funding for OUAIP, staff turnover in the national office last year interfered with full implementation of Congressionally mandated programs, such as the Urban and Innovative Production Grants. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) was withdrawn in February 2025, and there were no grant awards made in Fiscal Year 2025. Unfortunately, we are rapidly approaching the end of Fiscal Year 2026 and have not seen OUAIP post a NOFO for this year’s grants. Community partners, such as the ones highlighted above, have demonstrated their abilities to administer similar grant and training programs, filling a critical gap when USDA’s operations are delayed or otherwise hampered by insufficient staffing.
A Farm Bill SolutionCongressional leaders in the Senate recognize the potential of community partnerships and have introduced legislation that could increase capacity to OUAIP while maximizing reach of direct-to-farmer investments.
Last month, Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced the Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act, S.4470. This bill seeks to strengthen existing OUAIP services and expand the Office’s reach by supporting ongoing outreach, education, and technical assistance partnerships.
Specifically, the bill would:
- direct OUAIP to develop resources and engage local and state USDA Service Centers to serve the unique conservation and business-planning needs of urban and small-scale farmers;
- expand existing grant eligible entities to include farmer cooperatives;
- direct formal agreements with community organizations and technical assistance providers that can readily reach farmers;
- enable subawards so that farmer training and education can be paired with a modest influx of capital to strengthen on-farm impact; and
- secure reliable, mandatory funding of $15 million annually to continue its essential operations.
As the Senate Agriculture Committee prepares to introduce legislation reauthorizing the 2018 Farm Bill, it must provide sufficient resources to meet the new and persistent challenges facing farmers nationwide, including the unique challenges of farmers in urban and suburban areas. The Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act provides a clear pathway to do so.
The post USDA Sows Trust and Farm Success in Urban Communities appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
(Washington, D.C., June 3, 2026) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins launched the Small Processors Action Plan (PDF, 2.3 MB), a new set of actions to better support small and very small meat and poultry processing plants, improve customer service, and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens while maintaining strong food safety protections for consumers.
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