Urban farms in ‘food deserts’ could get tax credits under plan moving in Missouri Legislature | Politics
Missouri State Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins watches the inauguration of Tishaura Jones, 47th mayor of St. Louis, at City Hall on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, [email protected]
JEFFERSON CITY — Missourians could receive tax credits for establishing farms in some urban areas under a proposal that won initial approval in the Missouri House on Wednesday.
The legislation was attached to a bill allowing certain low-income Missourians to receive vouchers to use at farmers markets.
Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins, D-St. Louis, framed her amendment as an attempt to increase access to healthy food and include urban areas in the agricultural tax credits the state offers.
“We use agriculture tax credits on everything but urban agriculture,” she said, during an attempt earlier Wednesday to pass a more expansive version of the amendment. “And for once in our lifetimes, can we please support something that could help my community, our communities in the urban areas?”
Collins initially wanted the tax credits to extend to grocery stores that open in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty and limited access to full-service grocery stores.
But after the House voted down her first proposal, with some arguing the grocery store credits needed revisions, she received broad support for a more limited version focused only on turning vacant lots into urban farms.
