Urban Agriculture | US EPA (2024)

FAQs

What does the EPA do in agriculture? ›

Through the National Agriculture Center, EPA provides growers, livestock producers, other agribusinesses, and agricultural information/education providers with regulatory and non-regulatory agriculture-related information and other items of interest to the agriculture community from across EPA.

Urban agriculture includes the cultivation, processing, and distribution of agricultural products in urban and suburban areas. Community gardens, rooftop farms, hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic facilities, and vertical production, are all examples of urban agriculture.

While urban agriculture offers a number of benefits to the environment, including increased biodiversity, pollinator habitats, and nutrient-rich soils through compost production, these operations require mindful resource management throughout the food production cycle to prevent undue stresses on urban services, ...

Home and community gardeners typically grow food for their own consumption, donation, or limited nonprofit sales. Community gardens typically engage a number of stakeholders. Urban farms operate on a larger scale than community gardens, grow produce for sale, and often require a business license to operate.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects people and the environment from significant health risks, sponsors and conducts research, and develops and enforces environmental regulations.

excessive chemical usage of the agriculture sector would the EPA cover. What is an EPA ? The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is responsible for regulating and overseeing environmental issues, including the use of chemicals in agriculture.

Urban farming can potentially be a profitable enterprise, as it benefits from easy access to markets, low start-up and overhead costs (if you don't buy the land), better growing conditions (due to the urban heat island effect), easy access to water and less competition from native plants.

Urban agriculture can include community gardens; larger scale urban farms or orchards; growing vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices for market; raising chickens or livestock and keeping bees. It also may include growing flowers and non-food crops for landscaping and other uses.

Urban farming is the practice of growing fresh produce within the city for individual, communal, or commercial purposes. Urban farming often makes use of vacant lots, rooftops, and abandoned or repurposed indoor spaces to grow crops, such as fruits and vegetables.

What are the biggest barriers to the success of urban agriculture? ›

most commonly cited barriers by urban farmers were issues of land access. Of those surveyed, all respondents said that land access is one of the main issues facing would-be urban farmers in Los Angeles.

This includes community and school gardens, backyard and rooftop plots, and non-traditional methods of caring for plants and animals within a constrained area. Some definitions also include farms that supply to urban farmers markets, community supported agriculture, or farms located within metropolitan green belts.

Contrary to traditional farming, urban farming is the agriculture of food in urban areas that is small space friendly, uses fewer water resources, fewer food miles, more sustainable packaging, and emits less GHG.

Urban farming is a productive and relaxing activity, connecting people to their natural environment all while growing fresh, healthy food. There is nothing quite like harvesting lettuce from your own garden to prepare a simple dinner salad or picking blueberries for a homemade fruit cobbler.

Getting more EPA in your diet has positive effects on coronary heart disease, high triglycerides (fats in the blood), high blood pressure, and inflammation. Most people in the Western world do not get enough omega-3 fatty acids in their diet.

EPA is responsible under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) for regulating pesticides with public health uses, as well as ensuring that these products do not pose unintended or unreasonable risks to humans, animals and the environment.

EPA regulates the safety of the substances that protect GMO plants, referred to as plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs), that are in some GMO plants to make them resistant to insects and disease. EPA also monitors all other types of pesticides that are used on crops, including on GMO and non-GMO crops.

EPA and OSHA have the statutory responsibility to ensure the safety and health of the public and America's workforce through the timely and effective implementation of a number of federal laws and implementing regulations.