Houston Food Bank urges water-rate exemption for small urban farms to support food access

The Houston Food Bank and representatives from the nonprofit Plant It Forward asked the Houston Resilience Committee on April 3 to adopt an agricultural water-rate exemption for very small urban farms, saying the change would help keep neighborhood producers operating and increase access to fresh food in areas with high food insecurity.

"We are an organization whose vision is a world that doesn't need food banks," said Dr. Katherine Byers, government relations officer for the Houston Food Bank, during the presentation. Byers described the bank's distribution network, noting it serves 1,600 partner agencies across an 18-county area and has "a little over 300 partners" inside the city of Houston.

The request responds to multiple pressures on micro-scale farms, presenters said. Rachel, farm program director at Plant It Forward, told the committee that "urban farms operate on razor thin margins" and described fixed costs such as soil and infrastructure investments and water bills. She said a typical half-acre urban farm might gross about $50,000 in produce sales annually, with 40–50% of that revenue consumed by expenses; water bills for micro farms can run "1 to $2,000 a year," she said.

Presenters said USDA grant programs have helped link food banks with local growers but funding has recently been cut. Byers described one USDA program (Local Food Purchase Assistance, LFPA) that connected the food bank with urban growers; she said the grant-supported work included buying local produce and building farm capacity, and that recent federal funding changes have reduced those resources.

The exemption proposal is targeted narrowly, the presenters said. Qualifying operations would be small agricultural producers that grow food for human consumption, distribute most of their product through sales or community distribution, and maintain at least 5,000 square feet of productive growing space for the majority of the year. The proposal would exclude primarily personal-use backyard gardens and producers who grow chiefly non-food items (for example, cut flowers). Presenters also proposed verification documents such as sales or donation records, a business plan, or a farm map to confirm eligibility.

Plant It Forward’s analysis identified a small number of farms that would qualify in the city; presenters said roughly nine combined acres across qualifying plots would generate nearly $32,000 in collective annual water charges under current rates. Demonstrating how an exemption could increase production, presenters gave examples of possible investments: frost cloth (estimated to add about 1,400 pounds of produce annually), a small high tunnel (an added 3,000–5,000 pounds), and shade tarps to reduce heat stress and weeds.

Council Member Abby Kamen, vice chair of the committee, thanked the presenters and pressed for fiscal and operational detail. Kamen noted a state-level legal limit that prevents Texas cities from profiting on water service and asked whether the proposal included for-profit farms as well as nonprofits; presenters said some local growers operate as for-profit businesses and that a few are considering nonprofit conversion because margins are small. Kamen also asked about drought scenarios and whether the city could restrict water for safety; presenters and committee members said existing emergency water restrictions and coordination with Public Works would apply.

Committee members raised enforcement and oversight questions. The presentation team and committee members said staff would need to work with the City Attorney’s office and the Public Works director (referred to in the meeting as Director MacKay) to define verification, conservation requirements (for example, drip irrigation and limited watering hours) and monitoring mechanisms. The chair said she had discussed the concept with the Public Works director and reported the director "was favorable," but no ordinance language had been drafted and no formal direction or vote occurred at the meeting.

Presenters also addressed food safety and regulatory oversight: Byers said the Texas Department of Agriculture has the capacity to inspect small farms and that the Houston Food Bank follows federal safety standards when it purchases or distributes produce. The presenters said not all qualifying farms would have to be direct partners of the Houston Food Bank, though the bank expects to continue working with the majority of producers it has supported.

No formal action or vote was taken; the committee asked the Houston Food Bank to provide additional documentation, including examples of other Texas cities with similar programs, a fiscal analysis separating nonprofit and for-profit farm impacts, and calculations the presenters said they had already prepared on grant losses and the value of food lost after recent federal funding changes. The committee’s next regularly scheduled Resilience Committee meeting was announced for May 1 at 10 a.m.