Farm to School Grants Help Kids, Farm Size Growing
- U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the release of a request for applications for the third round of USDA’s Farm to School grants. USDA has also added a new funding track.
The grants help eligible schools improve the health and wellbeing of their students and connect with local agricultural producers.
Vilsack says connecting the nation’s farmers and ranchers with the National School Lunch Program provides schoolchildren with daily access to locally sourced, healthy foods. The Farm to School grants - he says - help schools respond to the growing demand for local foods and increase market opportunities for many types of food producers.
- The 2012 Census of Agriculture has been released and while the average farm size has grown nearly four percent, the number of farms has dropped 4.3 percent.
Middle-sized farms declined in number between 2007 and 2012. The number of large, 1,000 plus acres and very small, 1 to 9 acre farms did not change significantly in that time.
More From 1460 ESPN
