If it takes up land and someone grows something edible, as far as USDA is concerned, it’s a farm
“So urban producers go through a lot of the same procedures and the different policies we have for our rural producers.”
By Tom Temin
With Terry Cosby, chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
Federal News Network
March 28, 2022
Excerpt:
Tom Temin: First of all, let’s define urban agriculture. Because I imagine it’s more than Victory Gardens and rooftop gardens and that kind of thing.
Terry Cosby: Yes it is, you know, we have a lot of folks out there that are in areas where we have places where grocery stores have closed up, so anywhere can be an urban garden. But the thing I want to stress here is that, you know, it doesn’t have to be a million people location, it could be a small metropolitan area where there’s only five houses. And so urban garden takes a lot of forms and shapes.
Tom Temin: And I think even in Washington, D.C., there is an operating farm that is way more than a garden that is a production-oriented, trying to sell products at market type of operation. And I guess this is not uncommon?
Terry Cosby: It is not uncommon in here at USDA, we also have a people’s garden Initiative where we’re growing fruits and vegetables, we don’t sell them, but we have that set up out there so folks can walk through. But you know, this is something that a lot of folks have been doing for a lot of years. A lot of people want to buy local, grow local, it’s working all across the country, and urban agriculture looks different in every community.
Tom Temin: And does the USDA have any sort of handle on how big this movement is in terms of acreage or economic output in a given year?
