Growing for Chicago will use the $1 million Conservation Innovation Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to examine a "cohort-based" model for urban agriculture.
"The City of Chicago has been awarded a $1 million federal grant to explore urban farming as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program," reports Mathew Messner.
Chicago's grant is the latest in a string of grant awards from CIG. "In 2016 alone, the program has granted $26.6 million to 45 projects across the country," but usually with a more "typical" agricultural application, explains Messner.
Growing for Chicago, as the city's winning program is called, "will help establish more land trusts and cooperative arrangements for urban farming while providing improved recruitment and training for historically under-served communities." In addition to its primary missions, Growing for Chicago "will help establish more land trusts and cooperative arrangements for urban farming while providing improved recruitment and training for historically under-served communities."
Read the full story: USDA awards Chicago $1 million urban agriculture grant
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