I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3225 
To promote and enhance community agricultural production and technology 
in nontraditional communities through the establishment of a new office 
in the Department of Agriculture to ensure that Department authorities 
are coordinated more effectively to encourage local agricultural produc-
tion and increase the availability of fresh food in nontraditional commu-
nities, particularly underserved communities experiencing hunger, poor 
nutrition, obesity, and food insecurity, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 14, 2011 
Ms. KAPTUR (for herself, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. MOORE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. 
RICHARDSON, Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas, and Mr. JACKSON of Illinois) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ag-
riculture 
A BILL 
To promote and enhance community agricultural production 
and technology in nontraditional communities through 
the establishment of a new office in the Department 
of Agriculture to ensure that Department authorities are 
coordinated more effectively to encourage local agricul-
tural production and increase the availability of fresh 
food in nontraditional communities, particularly under-
served communities experiencing hunger, poor nutrition, 
obesity, and food insecurity, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings and purpose. 
Sec. 3. Office of Community Agriculture. 
Sec. 4. Community agriculture outreach program. 
Sec. 5. Farmer-to-consumer direct marketing. 
Sec. 6. Extension of and additional funding for seniors farmers’ market nutri-
tion program. 
Sec. 7. Community agriculture research and improved agricultural reporting. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Dramatic economic, demographic, and land 
use changes in the United States have created areas 
where no supermarkets exist and where limited food 
choice and lack of affordable food prices impact 
large segments of the country’s population. 
(2) Demographic changes have opened pockets 
of arable land for agriculture in America’s cities. 
(3) Diversifying United States food production 
from a globally consolidated and industrial food 
chain to one which includes local production rep-
resents an important opportunity to strengthen 
United States agriculture. 
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(4) With poverty rising due to chronic unem-
ployment and with food becoming a more significant 
component of family budgets, local production be-
comes an important option for families facing food 
insecurity. 
(5) It is estimated that 18.5 percent of Amer-
ican households have refrained from making nec-
essary food purchases due to economic cir-
cumstances, and many of these households reside in 
ethnically and racially diverse communities. 
(6) Food insecurity, epidemic levels of obesity, 
hypertension, diabetes and youth osteoporosis are 
caused by improper nutrition in food deserts without 
nutritious, reliable, and locally available healthy food 
options. 
(7) Advances in agricultural practices makes 
production possible in regions previously cordoned 
off from such opportunity. 
(8) With studies suggesting that much of the 
American west is becoming permanently more arid 
and 40 percent of all fresh water resources in the 
United States are used for irrigation, the need for 
more efficient food production and agriculture closer 
to point of consumption is critical. 
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ate opportunities for the economical production of 
food closer to point of consumption. 
(15) From 1999 to 2010, the value of imported 
food products to the United States increased over 
100 
percent 
from 
$40,700,000,000 
to 
$86,100,000,000, which has led to a growing reli-
ance on foreign-produced food, particularly during 
cold seasons, as diminished options exist for locally 
produced fresh and affordable choices. 
(16) Expanding production and access to locally 
produced food strengthens the vital link between 
healthy populations, sustainable living, and the nat-
ural world. 
(17) According to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, direct and indirect medical 
costs associated with obesity and diabetes in the 
United States are more than $300 billion. 
(18) Expanding access to food for populations 
that suffer from shortages of nutritious food involves 
regional food production in communities where the 
link between daily life and the environment has been 
all but eliminated. 
(19) Many tools exist to empower communities 
toward local food production to break the cycle of 
food insecurity: For example, by the end of World 
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War II, over 20,000,000 home gardens were sup-
plying 40 percent of domestically consumed produce. 
(20) There was a 16-percent increase in the 
number of operating farmers markets in the United 
States between 2009 to 2010 according to the Agri-
cultural Marketing Service of the Department of Ag-
riculture. 
(21) 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. 
(22) 
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 
expanded to include production in food deserts 
across the country, has the potential to provide in-
vestment and improved nutrition to communities and 
reinvent landscapes that lack sufficient access to 
food. 
(23) 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 
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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 establish and augment authorities to en-
gage in local community agricultural production, 
combat food insecurity, and reduce the United 
States reliance on imported agricultural products; 
(2) to pursue better coordination to empower 
communities and their residents to engage in com-
munity agriculture, purchase and produce food lo-
cally, create sustainable food systems, and better 
connect 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 food production plat-
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forms and micro-enterprise development in areas 
where these nutrition programs are accessed; and 
(4) to develop a unified strategy toward greater 
self-sufficiency by using Federal nutrition programs 
as a tool for economic development in communities, 
even in regions that have not traditionally been cen-
ters for food production where human need is evi-
dent. 
SEC. 3. OFFICE OF COMMUNITY 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: 
‘‘SEC. 221. OFFICE OF COMMUNITY AGRICULTURE. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab-
lish within the executive operations of the Department an 
office to be known as the Office of Community Agri-
culture. 
‘‘(b) DIRECTOR.—The Office of Community Agri-
culture shall be headed by a Director, to be appointed by 
the Secretary. 
‘‘(c) PURPOSE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF OFFICE.— 
‘‘(1) PURPOSE.—The Office of Community Ag-
riculture is established for the purpose of coordi-
nating activities throughout the Department of Agri-
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