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USDA announces $74M in rural Iowa investments

The USDA is investing $74 million to help diversify food production and improve access to clean water in rural Iowa.

Xochitl Torres Small is the USDA’s Under Secretary for Rural Development.

“Rural America has risen to the challenge to produce food as efficiently as possible with the same land making more crops so that they can feed the country, but they haven’t necessarily seen the benefit from that,” she said Wednesday at an event in Pella, Iowa.

She tells Brownfield the funds will be distributed for 21 projects.

“We’re looking first at the rural economy where we are creating jobs,” Torres Small said. “Also, the care economy. How are we supporting the people who are doing that work? Making sure they can be healthy and safe, and build more opportunity in the places they love.”

The projects are receiving funding through seven USDA Rural Development programs including the Value-Added Producer Grant, Water and Waste Disposal Loans and Grants, Emergency Rural Health Care Grants, Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant, Community Facilities Direct Loans and Grants, Rural Business Development Grants, and Community Facilities Disaster Technical Assistance and Training.