Missouri Legislative Committee on Urban Agriculture Holds Hearing in KCMO

Since many beginning farmers are from urban areas, I thought this article might be of interest to you.

On July 11, the Missouri Legislature's Joint Committee on Urban Agriculture held the first of four public hearings on the reality, opportunities, and needs of urban agriculture in the state, with the goal of developing a set of policy recommendations that could help the state more fully benefit from urban food production.

The hearing was held on the campus of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, with support from the UMKC Department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design. It was chaired by Rep. Jason Holsman and attended by several committee members and advisory subcommittee members. Approximately 75 members of the public turned out to testify or follow the proceedings.

A local committee met several times in advance to recruit testifiers, plan out testimony, and do some basic research on potential policy initiatives. We set out the goal of introducing legislators to the basic framework of urban agriculture and presenting some initial thoughts on areas of policy. We learned from Rep. Holsman that the committee will be looking at urban agriculture from a production, distribution, and access viewpoint, so we recruited and prepared testimony from speakers to focus not only on the many ways that people are growing food in the city but also on how urban residents can access food grown on area farms through farmers markets, mobile markets, grocery stores, etc.

Our ad hoc committee, Beth Low from the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition, and Cultivate KC staff researched urban ag policies in other states, hoping to glean best practices. Interestingly, we found that most of the urban ag policy work has happened at the municipal and county levels, with state level action being a relatively new phenomenon. Some of the issues we’ll be looking at include:

• Costs and challenges in developing empty lots including soil contamination/degradation and water access: are there ways that the state can provide incentives, support or guidance to municipalities and to individual growers to help Missouri cities create and protect productive greenspace on currently blighted land?

• Food distribution: while some Missouri cities have created or are on their way to creating food hubs and models for ensuring that locally grown food--both urban and rural--can get to city residents, there is still a need across the state for improved distribution models. Can the state more actively encourage and support food hubs?

• Participation in federal food assistance programs that benefit both consumers and local farmers: Missouri doesn’t participate in the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program nor does it allow for WIC coupons to be used at farmers’ markets. While there is some complicated history to this, these federal programs benefit consumers and both urban and rural growers who sell at markets serving low-income residents.

• An issue that has come up in nearly all the discussions around this process (as well as in several other food planning efforts in the metro area) is the tax on food. Both Kansas and Missouri have a sales tax on food. While it is hard to imagine in our current economic climate that we could remove (or even reduce) that tax, we are going to raise the issue and know that others will also. Sales taxes on food are regressive and hit low income consumers the hardest and farmers, unlike grocery stores, generally “eat” the sales taxes out of their posted prices at market, rather than adding them on top of the price per pound or unit. Eliminating the sales tax on food in general, or on locally grown food, would assist consumers and local farmers both.

The Committee will hold three more hearings, most likely in Columbia, Jefferson City, and St. Louis. We’re looking forward to working with the urban ag communities in each of those areas to ensure that the Joint Committee gets good information about the reality of what is happening in our communities and that we present policy options that would be real and meaningful for the folks on the ground.

(By Katherine Kelly with Cultivate Kansas City)