(The Center Square) – Serving small farmers with grants and technical assistance with the creation of the Office of Small Farms at the USDA is in a bill introduced at the U.S. House of Representatives.
Small farms have barriers at the USDA, said Reps. Alma Adams, D-NC, Cory Booker, D-NJ, Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash. and Jim McGovern, D-Mass. A release says the office “would directly serve small farmers with grants and technical assistance and ensure that all USDA programs are designed to meet the needs of small farmers.”
The bill sponsors say small acreage farms, defined as fewer than 180 acres, are 70% of all farms in the United States. Dozens of agriculture entities support the measure.
The release says, “Despite their substantial contributions to the U.S. economy, they only receive 12% of federal payments to farms. USDA programs should serve all farmers equally, but they often favor large-scale operations. This can be traced to staff shortages, program design, and resource gaps that disadvantage small farms.”
Adams, a senior member of the Agriculture Committee, said in the release, “Almost 2 million farms and ranches in the United States are operated by small family farmers. Small family farms often lack the resources to apply for the very programs that could help them the most, and historically underserved farmers are more likely to operate their farms at a smaller scale.”
She said she hopes the measure, if law, will help “preserve our shrinking family farmland, and preserve our sources of food, nourishment, and agriculture far into the future. All North Carolina farmers – rural and urban; small, medium, and large – deserve better than a one-size-fits-all approach.”
