PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jack Reed says a land trust in Rhode Island has been awarded $600,000 in federal funding to help beginning farmers.

The Rhode Island Democrat says the Southside Community Land Trust won a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help beginning farmers access resources and training.

Reed toured the land trust’s 50-acre Urban Edge Farm bordering Cranston and Johnston on Tuesday. It serves as a hub for small-scale, environmentally sustainable commercial agriculture.

Thirteen farmers operate at Urban Edge. New farmers are invited there to learn how to raise and market crops.

Reed says the grant helps “plant the seeds for future success.”

The land trust says it has used federal funding to help 27 people begin farming and to train another 79 beginning farmers in the past three years.

–Associated Press

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