UDC Reaps a Bumper Crop From Agriculture Measure

Even before the 2008 farm bill, UDC received about $2 million a year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its land-grant programs. But it didn't have the same access to funds as other universities, since it was authorized under a separate 1974 law.

"We are asking for access to grants that every other land-grant institution has," Norton said. "And we have the programs that they have, even though we are a city."

Indeed, UDC even has a farm. The 143-acre spread, which was donated years ago by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is in Beltsville, a 17-mile drive from the campus.

Muirkirk Farm offers a glimpse of how difficult it is for a cash-strapped urban university to do agriculture. Only nine acres are in use, for a tree nursery and research projects such as Allen's pigweed plants; the rest are covered with forest. No classes are taught at the facility.

Wyche-Moore said she hopes to use some of the new funds to build an environmental-education center or nature trails that could be used by city students. Currently there are only three small buildings on the farm, including a greenhouse whose ceiling has partially collapsed.

"No funding," Wyche-Moore explains.

Now, though, life is looking up for the farm folk of the District of Columbia.

"We didn't have the ability to build capacity," Wyche-Moore said. "That's why this [farm bill] is so important to us."