Sponsors (8)
The bill provides new and sustained federal funding, technical assistance, and R&D priorities to grow urban agriculture, improve local food access, and modernize agricultural data—benefiting community groups, researchers, and some farmers—while increasing federal spending, administrative complexity, and the risk that benefits concentrate with better-resourced organizations and technology-focused agriculture at the expense of traditional farming priorities.
Urban and Tribal producers, local governments, nonprofits, and schools gain stable, dedicated funding for urban agriculture and local food projects ($15M/year mandatory CCC funding plus authorized appropriations), enabling multi-year planning and project continuity through 2030.
Nonprofits, Tribal organizations, local governments, co‑ops, and K–12 schools can receive competitive grants and cooperative agreements with subgrant authority to build local food projects and urban farm growth, increasing community-based capacity and funding access.
Urban and small/noncontiguous growers receive technical assistance for business incorporation, zoning, and farm-tract management, helping small operators formalize and expand operations.
Taxpayers and the federal budget face increased spending commitments—mandatory $15M/year plus potential $50M/year appropriations for urban programs and an added ~$8M/year for census-related research—raising concerns about deficits, offsets, or crowding out other priorities.
Small-scale, low-income, and resource-limited farmers and individual growers risk being left behind because grant and cooperative-agreement funding and emphasis on technology-intensive projects tend to favor organizations with grant-writing capacity and better-capitalized operations.
Farmers and researchers focused on conventional field agriculture may see AFRI research dollars diverted toward controlled-environment agriculture, reducing funding for priorities like soil health and field-crop research.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Expands USDA urban agriculture office, authorizes grants/cooperative agreements, adds CEA tech to research priorities, and provides multi‑year funding for FY2026–2030.
Official title: Amend the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 to improve the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 30, 2026 by John Karl Fetterman · Last progress April 30, 2026
Creates a standing federal program to support urban and controlled‑environment farming by expanding the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, adding grant and cooperative agreement authority, and providing multi‑year funding. It makes controlled‑environment production technologies (hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics, etc.) an explicit research priority for USDA competitive grants and increases recurring funding for an existing agriculture census‑linked program through FY2026–2030. The bill authorizes mandatory Commodity Credit Corporation funding ($15 million/year starting FY2026), authorizes up to $50 million/year in appropriations for FY2026–2030 for the Office’s grant program, creates eligible recipients (nonprofits, local governments, Tribal orgs, producer networks, and K–12 schools for grants), and raises a separate program’s recurring funding to $8 million/year for FY2026–2030, available until expended.