An $8.9 million federal award will pay Central Texas farmers to keep their land in farming. Here is Austin's part

A partnership that includes the City of Austin has won $8,913,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect farmland in Central Texas, the city announced Nov. 2. The Conservation Fund leads the project, working with the city and the Central Texas Food Bank.

The money will buy conservation easements: farmers sell the development rights to their land but keep owning and farming it. The land is then permanently protected from development. The release says the program covers 16 counties, much of it Blackland Prairie, and focuses on small farms growing crops such as salad greens, tomatoes, peppers, root vegetables and melons. Funding is available through 2031.

For Austin residents, the stakes are local food supply and the farms that still ring a fast-growing metro area. The release does not say how many acres the money could protect.

Who said what

The grant comes from USDA's Regional Conservation Partnership Program through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Zach Baumer, director of Austin Climate Action and Resilience, called it "an exciting development" for protecting working lands and the regional food system. Ellen Gass, Texas field representative for The Conservation Fund, called it "an important step" toward protecting the region's most vulnerable farmland, according to the release.

The release does not spell out the city's specific responsibilities in the partnership, and it does not say whether the city is putting in money of its own. Any city money would need council approval.

What our records add

The food plan. The city says the award advances the Austin/Travis County Food Plan, including long-term farmland preservation and support for small and mid-sized producers. The council has approved the plan's implementation in two votes:

• In May 2025, an interlocal agreement with Travis County for the city to manage implementation of the food plan, 11-0 on consent.
• In December 2025, a $281,648 contract for a food plan implementation collaborative run through the climate office, 11-0 on consent.

Council members asked about farmland before. At a July 2025 meeting of the council's Climate, Water, Environment and Parks Committee, Council Member Mike Siegel asked whether the city could "farm food locally" on city-owned conservation land, or stack other uses such as solar. A staff member answered that the food plan was one of the harder goals to meet on those lands because they are so valuable for development, and noted that Travis County had just approved its first conservation easement to protect a farm, an approach the city "might look at for farmland protection."

Earlier that year, in April 2025, a city food systems staff member told the same committee that the region is losing farmland at an unprecedented rate, has very few urban farms, and lags communities that have worked on the issue for years. Staff said they were building maps of prime farmland, public land and community gardens.

What this award is not. The easements would be bought from willing landowners across the region, most of them outside the city limits. The release does not describe any change to city zoning or to how the city manages its own land.

What's next

• The Conservation Fund will run the easement program. Farmers interested in selling an easement would work with the partners; the release does not yet list an application process.
• The council would vote on any city contract or interlocal agreement that commits city money to the program. None is on the current agenda.
• The food plan collaborative contract, approved in December 2025, has a 33-month term.