S. 4470 — Supporting Urban and Innovative Farming Act of 2026

This section expands the authorities of the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production within the Department of Agriculture. It adds “production” after “emerging agricultural” in the office’s purposes, inserts “controlled-environment agriculture, including” before “hydroponic,” and adds three new purposes: providing technical assistance for business incorporation, zoning, and farm tract numbers for smaller parcels; promoting urban-specific conservation techniques addressing stormwater runoff and impacted urban land; and assisting producers in navigating Federal, State, Tribal, and local policies and regulations. This section reauthorizes the office’s activities and advisory committee through September 30, 2030 (from 2023 and five years after member appointments, respectively). It replaces the existing grants authority with a new subsection authorizing competitive grants to eligible entities—including nonprofit organizations, units of local government, Tribal organizations, agricultural cooperatives, and K–12 schools—for urban and innovative agricultural production, with authority for subgrants to producers and a priority for projects improving access to local foods in areas with limited fresh-food access; it also authorizes cooperative agreements with a similar list of eligible entities. This section converts the existing pilot projects authority into a permanent program, removes all references to “pilot,” extends the program through FY2030 (from FY2023), and expands eligibility to include Tribal governments, States, and United States territories (from local or municipal governments only). It provides mandatory funding of $15,000,000 annually for FY2026 and each fiscal year thereafter from the Commodity Credit Corporation and authorizes appropriations of $50,000,000 for each of FY2026 through FY2030.

This section expands the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative by adding hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics, and other production technologies used in controlled-environment agriculture to the list of priority research areas eligible for competitive grants.

This section modifies data collection requirements related to the census of agriculture. (1) It requires ongoing collection of specified data in each census of agriculture (rather than only in the 2017 census, with a one-year deadline after enactment). (2) It authorizes appropriations of $18,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030, to remain available until expended (from $14,000,000 for fiscal years 2019 through 2021).