USDA Rolls Out Effort To Help Marginalized Farmers

Ask the Administration and they’ll tell you that beginning farmers, farmers with limited resources, those unserved or underserved by USDA have four major barriers to overcome; the lack of access to information, land, credit and reliable markets.  In an effort to help these producers and future farmers, Ag secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced new investments to improve access.  And while the USDA already has several programs working to address these issues;

“But, we believe there is an opportunity for us to tap the innovative and creative energies of organizations across the United States who are working on these issues.  And for that reason we’ve allocated $300 million for the purpose of providing grants to organizations who will apply for these resources and who will outline in those applications how they can best find creative ways to make land available, to make markets available and to provide credit opportunities.”

The Ag Secretary added these projects will help the USDA improve its own programs.

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