The National Urban Agriculture Initiative (NUag) partners with organizations across the U.S. to bring real-world experience and innovative solutions to those who are working on the ground to advance urban agriculture. These organizations are dedicated to supporting new and existing producers with a variety of programs, education and activities that will support urban agriculture within their local areas.
Along with the NUag Initiative Coordinators, these organizations are working cooperatively as part of the national project. Find out more about their efforts that will further help to bridge the gap between farmers and USDA agencies to ensure the future for urban agriculture.
National Cooperators
City/Region: Los Angeles and Oakland, CA
About: Community Alliance with Family Farmers builds sustainable food and farming systems through policy advocacy and on-the-ground programs that create more resilient family farms, communities and ecosystems.
NUag Project: As part of the NUag Initiative, CAFF will conduct farmer engagement, education, network development, and listening events for the urban agriculture community. These farmer gatherings will serve as valuable unifying opportunities for farmers to connect, collaborate, and identify their needs from government entities.
Contact: info@caff.org
City/Region: Portland, OR
About: Ecotrust’s mission is to inspire fresh thinking that creates economic opportunity, social equity, and environmental well-being. Our goal is to foster a natural model of development that creates more resilient communities, economies, and ecosystems here and around the world.
NUag Project: Ecotrust’s project, Building Capacity, Access, and Resiliency for Historically Underserved Producers of Portland, Oregon, will assist with addressing the lack of engagement in programs offered through USDA FSA, NRCS, as well as other USDA programs that are geared towards servicing underserved urban producers in the Portland Metro area. Organizational collaboration is a key component of their work as a NUag Initiative cooperator.
City/Region: New York, NY
About: Farm School NYC trains NYC residents in urban agriculture, builds self-reliant communities, and inspires positive local action around food sovereignty and social, economic, and racial justice.
NUag Project: Through their cooperation with the NUAg Initiative, Farm School NYC is seeking to build food sovereignty and resiliency among underserved communities in New York City by fortifying and furthering urban agriculture education and technical assistance grounded in BIPOC land stewardship.
Contact: info@farmschoolnyc.org
City/Region: Albuquerque, NM
About: Farm to Table collaborates with hundreds of partners across the state, region and nation, creating a ripple effect that touches our lives in big and small ways – at home, in schools and in the field. Since 1996, Farm to Table has worked to strengthen the economic livelihoods of farmers by building connections to local markets, facilitating sales of local fresh produce to institutions and restaurants, by bringing healthy foods and exploratory learning to schools by way of farm to school programs, by providing trainings that highlight pollinators as allies, by assisting communities with food policy council development to strive for equity in our food system, and by gathering folks in learning environments.
NUag Project: For the NUag Initiative, Farm to Table will work to increase the production capacity, sustainability and adaptability, and resource utilization of urban and underserved rural farmers through direct outreach, technical assistance, financial assistance, and increasing market opportunities.
Contact: info@farmtotablenm.org
City/Region: Dallas, TX
About: The mission of GROW North Texas is to connect North Texans to food, farms, and community to create a sustainable, secure regional food system that enriches the land, encourages economic opportunity through food and agriculture, and provides equitable access to healthy, nutritious food for all residents. We believe that everyone should have access to healthy, nutritious, culturally appropriate food.
NUag Project: Grow North Texas will provide outreach events, education, resources, and technical assistance for underserved farmers, ranchers, and community food projects as part of the NUag Initiative. Their project will connect participants with and prepare them for USDA programs that can help provide economic viability and sustainability while leveraging climate-smart agriculture practices in the urban setting.
Contact: info@grownorthtexas.org
City/Region: Detroit, NT
About: The mission of Keep Growing Detroit is to cultivate a food sovereign city where the majority of fruits and vegetables consumed by Detroiters are grown by residents within the city’s limits.
NUag Project: For the NUag Initiative, Keep Growing Detroit will invest in the development and expansion of urban farms in the Detroit area through the installation of water lines and technical assistance to growers on building and land use.
Contact: info@keepgrowingdetroit.org
City/Region: Columbus, Ohio (statewide)
About: As a Land-Grant, urban serving, Carnegie engaged university, Ohio State University addresses Ohio’s urban influence and connections along the urban-rural continuum.
NUag Project: As a NUag Initiative cooperator, OSU will focus on foundational activities in building the urban ag community that includes: data gathering and developing a database of urban ag producers; conducting outreach and stakeholder engagement that will inform research priorities in urban ag; and utilizing data and outreach efforts to inform how the university targets and provides technical assistance to urban ag growers on USDA FSA and NRCS programs.
City/Region: Philadelphia, PA
About: Pasa is a nonprofit that supports sustainable farms and equitable food systems through farmer-driven education, research and community.
NUag Project: As part of the NUag Initiative, Pasa will host events and conferences as well as provide one-on-one technical assistance to include assistance applying for USDA programs. Their organization also plans to have growers assist in research projects and host apprentices.
Contact: info@pasafarming.org
City/Region: Minneapolis, MN
About: Renewing the Countryside strengthens rural areas by championing and supporting rural communities, farmers, artists, entrepreneurs, educators, activists and other people who are renewing the countryside through sustainable and innovative initiatives, businesses, and projects. We do this by sharing stories of rural renewal, building awareness and support for sustainable endeavors, connecting people interested in sustainable rural development to each other, providing practical assistance and networking opportunities for those working to improve rural America, and fostering connections between urban and rural people.
NUag Project: As a NUag Initiative cooperator, Renewing the Countryside II is working to harness relationships built over the past 20 years to connect existing networks with each other and with USDA agencies. Efforts will include organizing listening sessions, providing trainings, and hiring staff to work directly with producers through one-on-one collaboration and field days.
Contact: info@rtcinfo.org
City/Region: New Orleans, LA
About: SPROUT supports established and developing small-scale and sustainable farmers, community gardeners, and farm workers in Louisiana with technical and social support to build a stronger, more equipped community of growers in Louisiana and help all New Orleanians be part of a community food system.
NUag Project: For the NUag Initiative, SPROUT will provide education, support and microgrants to underserved urban producers. Their goals aim to formalize outreach, education, and support networks that connect their urban farming community to USDA programs and services; deliver on-farm support through the SPROUT Urban Ag Cohort Model; and continue support for increasing representation on the New Orleans Urban County Committee (UCOC) as one of the pilot locations established by USDA’s Farm Service Agency.
Contact: info@sproutnola.org
City/Region: Tucson, AZ
About: University of Arizona Cooperative Extension engages with people through applied research and education to improve lives, families, communities, the environment and economies in Arizona and beyond. Offices are located in all 15 counties and on 5 Native nations, connecting them to University of Arizona research and resources. This connection to research-backed knowledge helps people solve problems, adapt to change, develop new skills and carry innovations forward into practice.
NUag Project: As a NUag Initiative cooperator, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension works with its many branches, as well as the City of Phoenix and Maricopa County, to enhance communication through mailings, newsletters, a website and digital media. They will offer training programs, as well as a Service Incubator that will host USDA staff for ease of access for the urban communities.
City/Region: Athens, GA (statewide)
About: The University of Georgia Office of Research encourages and supports innovative interdisciplinary research, scholarship and creative activities that contribute to the physical, emotional and economic well-being of the people of Georgia, the nation and the world. Through partnerships and collaborations, we seek to share knowledge, increase innovation and deliver the products of our research to the marketplace.
NUag Project: Through a variety of outreach and engagement tools, the Archway Partnership will conduct a needs assessment, pool data, community and business surveys, interviews, focus groups, evaluations, and asset inventories to increase the number of producers that have access to assistance in urban food production. Additionally, they plan to create a link from producers to FSA and USDA resources, along with state and non-governmental resources, as a cooperator with the NUag Initiative.
City/Region: Urbana, IL (statewide)
About: As part of the Land Grant system, the University of Illinois was established not only to provide world class education and pioneer research and discovery, but to put learning and discovery into practice, to benefit the health and wellbeing of residents and communities in every part of Illinois. Extension is the university’s statewide network of educators, faculty experts, and staff dedicated to that mission.
Communities are directly served by Extension staff in 27 units located throughout Illinois. Extension educators in local offices and specialists located on the U of I campus develop and deliver in-depth programming locally, in regional venues, and through distance-learning technologies.
NUag Project: As a NUag Initiative cooperator, Illinois Extension will provide outreach, education, and technical assistance to underserved urban food and agricultural producers in Chicago, Illinois, to assist them in accessing USDA programs and services. The overarching goal of the project is to support USDA’s FSA goals of increasing equity in urban food systems by expanding the agency’s outreach efforts to commercial urban producers through outreach, education, and technical assistance in addition to increasing supply chain resiliency in urban food systems by improving the sustainability and long-term viability of urban farming operations. This project will promote the ability of urban producers to be eligible to serve as elected representatives on the FSA Urban County Committee.
City/Region: Columbia, NO (statewide)
About: Our distinct mission, as Missouri’s only state-supported member of the Association of American Universities, is to provide all Missourians the benefits of a world-class research university. We are stewards and builders of a priceless state resource, a unique physical infrastructure and scholarly environment in which our tightly interlocked missions of teaching, research, service and economic development work together on behalf of all citizens. Students work side by side with some of the world’s best faculty to advance the arts and humanities, the sciences and the professions. Scholarship and teaching are daily driven by a commitment to public service — the obligation to produce and disseminate knowledge that will improve the quality of life in the state, the nation and the world.
NUag Project: The university’s role as a NUag Initiative cooperator, will support USDA FSA in increasing equity in urban food systems and expanding outreach efforts to commercial urban producers through technical assistance, education, and research. This project will also work to increase supply chain resiliency in urban food systems by improving urban farms’ sustainability and long-term viability.
City/Region: Grand Rapids, MI
About: West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC) has been West Michigan’s preeminent resource for environmental education and advocacy since 1968. Founded by a diverse group of concerned citizens and organizational stakeholders, WMEAC is a non-profit, 501C3 organization uniquely positioned to respond to emerging issues and new threats to West Michigan’s natural and human ecologies, strategically focused on building sustainable communities and protecting water resources.
Our service area includes the eight-county West Michigan region: Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Kent, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo and Ottawa, with primary emphasis on the Grand Rapids, Holland and Muskegon metropolitan areas.
NUag Project: As a NUag Initiative cooperator, WMEAC will focus on farmer-to-farmer training in spaces throughout Grand Rapids, MI. The project goal is focused on increasing participation and equity in the Grand Rapids urban food system, as well as seeking to support new, aspiring, and existing urban producers who are establishing and expanding their operations.
Contact: info@wmeac.org
