(18) Diabetes and obesity alone cost the Amer-
ican people approximately $130,000,000,000 annu-
ally in medical expenses and lost productivity. 
(19) Expanding access to food for vulnerable 
populations involves regional food production in 
communities where the link between daily life and 
the natural world has been all but eliminated. 
(20) Many of the tools exist to break the cycle 
of food insecurity and empower communities: For 
example, by the end of World War II, over 
20,000,000 home gardens were supplying 40 percent 
of domestically consumed produce. 
(21) Between 1994 and 2008, the number of 
farmers’ markets nationwide grew 167 percent and 
between fiscal years 2005 and 2006, the number of 
farmers’ markets with electronic benefit transfer de-
vices grew from 436 to 532. 
(22) Promoting the many different forms of ag-
riculture, both consolidated, industrial agriculture 
and small scale, decentralized agriculture, is bene-
ficial to serving many different needs in a diverse so-
ciety. 
(23) 
In 
2007, 
247,772 
farms 
harvested 
39,259,592 acres of specialty crops and produced 
$67,417,397,000 worth of food products, which, if 
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expanded to include production in food deserts 
across the country, has the potential to provide in-
vestment and improved nutrition to communities and 
reinvent urban landscapes that lack sufficient access 
to food. 
(24) In the Food, Conservation, and Energy 
Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–246), Congress pro-
vided the Department of Agriculture with sufficient 
flexibility in implementing certain programs to pro-
mote locally based agricultural enterprises, including 
a 5 percent set-aside for business and industry loan 
program for underserved communities, significant 
increases for the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition 
Program that links local producers and consumers, 
an expanded authorization for the Farm to School 
Program, and new legal requirements allowing flexi-
bility in local purchase by some nutrition programs. 
(b) INTENT OF CONGRESS.—It is the intent of Con-
gress— 
(1) to augment existing authorities to engage 
agricultural production, combat food insecurity, and 
counteract the substitution of imported products as 
they displace greater shares domestically produced 
products; 
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(2) to pursue better coordination to empower 
communities to eliminate food deserts, purchase and 
produce food locally, create sustainable food systems, 
and connect better the existing programs that can 
and should be used to alleviate pockets of hunger 
and severe food insecurity; 
(3) to work with the various State agencies re-
sponsible for administering the Federal nutrition 
programs on methods and strategies for using Fed-
eral food dollars to create local and micro-enterprise 
development in areas where these nutrition programs 
are used; and 
(4) to develop a unified strategy to use the Fed-
eral nutrition programs as a tool for economic devel-
opment in food insecure regions, even in regions that 
have not traditionally been centers for food produc-
tion where human need is evident. 
SEC. 3. OFFICE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Department of Agri-
culture Reorganization Act of 1994 is amended by insert-
ing after section 220 (7 U.S.C. 6920) the following new 
section: 
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‘‘SEC. 221. OFFICE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab-
lish within the executive operations of the Department an 
office to be known as the Office of Urban Agriculture. 
‘‘(b) PURPOSE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF OFFICE.— 
‘‘(1) PURPOSE.—The Office of Urban Agri-
culture is established for the purpose of coordinating 
activities throughout the Department of Agriculture 
related to urban agriculture and nutrition. 
‘‘(2) SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES.—The Office 
of Urban Agriculture shall be responsible for coordi-
nating Department activities and conducting over-
sight in the following mission areas: 
‘‘(A) Ensuring that Department authori-
ties are used to effectively encourage agricul-
tural production in underserved communities to 
combat hunger, poor nutrition, obesity, and 
food insecurity. 
‘‘(B) Ensuring that Department authori-
ties are used to empower communities, espe-
cially communities with a large percentage of 
low-income residents, to eliminate shortages of 
affordable, fresh food products, increase the 
local production and sale of food, and create 
sustainable food systems. 
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‘‘(C) Developing a unified strategy to link 
the agricultural production and nutrition pro-
grams administered by the Department as a 
tool for economic development in underserved 
communities in a manner that addresses local 
conditions and engages local residents through 
agricultural economic development. 
‘‘(D) Ensuring that nutrition programs ad-
ministered by State agencies maximize the im-
pact of Federal funds in creating local agricul-
tural microenterprises. 
‘‘(E) Conducting systematic and regular 
reviews of Department authorities and making 
policy recommendations to Congress and the 
Secretary on new authorities or regulation 
changes to assist underserved communities to 
combat hunger, poor nutrition, obesity, and 
food insecurity. 
‘‘(F) Ensuring that the programs estab-
lished by the Greening Food Deserts Act and 
by amendments made by that Act are imple-
mented in a manner consistent with the goal of 
eliminating underserved communities. 
‘‘(c) UNDERSERVED COMMUNITY DEFINED.—In this 
section, the term ‘underserved community’ has the mean-
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