For further information, contact: Intertribal Agriculture Council, Colby Duren, colby@indianag.org (406) 259-3525, Rural Coalition, John Zippert, jzippert@aol.com or Lorette Picciano, lpicciano@ruralco.org (202-628-7161) or North Carolina Association of Black Farmers, savi@landloss.org (919) 682-5969.
For Immediate Release 6/12/2021
Organizations Deplore Temporary Restraining Order Stopping Relief for Black, Indigenous and People of Color Farmers and Ranchers
We, the undersigned, are organizations whose service constituency is composed of Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and Asian, and Pacific Islander family farmers. With our allied farm and environmental organizational signatories, we jointly deplore the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from implementing Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan Act, to assist BIPOC farmers in paying off their Farm Service Agency direct or guaranteed loans.
The underlying case, and related cases, reflect a flagrant attempt to overturn an act of Congress and the over 30 years of history of a definition that acknowledges and enables USDA to meet the urgent and particular needs of socially disadvantaged producers. During this pandemic, our producers have been unable to access the level of support and service provided to other groups of farmers and ranchers and will be further harmed by this relief being delayed.
We see these lawsuits as undemocratic actions designed only to frustrate and defeat the justice long denied to BIPOC farmers and ranchers and their communities. Many of the undersigned have worked for decades to assist tens of thousands of producers who have endured decades of disparate and discriminatory treatment by the USDA with huge barriers to relief–situations that continue today. This includes establishing a definition and provisions providing targeted USDA program resources in credit, conservation, marketing, cooperative development and other services for these socially disadvantaged farmer applicants--all which have been included, without legal challenge, in Farm Bills over the past 30 plus years.
Congress took into account this sad and sordid history when it consciously added Sections 1005 and 1006 of the American Rescue Plan. These sections targeted assistance to help BIPOC farmers to recover from more than a year of calamitous and disruptive conditions in producing and marketing of agricultural products.
No serious observer of USDA’s role in American agriculture can doubt that the Department has engaged in decades of intentional, and systematic, discrimination based on race and ethnicity. The results have been catastrophic and have completely reshaped farming by eliminating a wide swath of farmers. If ever there was a constitutional basis for taking race into account when making policy this is it. In its decision the Court appears oblivious to this history, and hostile to efforts to achieve true racial justice.
We urge and support USDA to continue its vigorous defense of this critical relief and to assure the TRO does not prevent USDA from continuing to implement the eligibility and application process for this loan payment assistance, pending a favorable decision against a permanent injunction on this critically needed assistance for BIPOC farmers.
Our organizations further pledge to work to assure the intent of Congress is fulfilled and the rights of our producers are not extinguished.
We urge all other farmers and people of good will to educate themselves about this basic, fundamental, and continuing struggle for justice and equity by BIPOC farmers and their communities.
Intertribal Agriculture Council
Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund
National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Trade Association
North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers Land Loss Prevention Project
Rural Coalition
Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund
Alianza Naciónal de Campesinas
American Indian Mothers, Inc.
Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation
Border Agricultural Workers Project
Cottage House, Inc.
Family Farm Defenders
Farm Aid
Hempstead Project Heart
Latino Farmers of the Southeast
Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project
Operation Spring Plant
National Family Farm Coalition
National Young Farmers Coalition
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Rural Development Leadership Network
Texas Coalition of Rural Landowners
World Farmers
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In production agriculture, the transfer of land and wealth from one generation to the next is as important as rain. All farmers understand this predicament, and know that using conservation, crop insurance and other tools can help alleviate some of the risks associated with farming. But Black farmers across the south also know first hand that bad weather and pests are not the only hazards that may put you out of business.
We urge you to view this story which details how inequities in access to credit played a huge role in destroying the dreams of a young black sugar cane farmer desiring to follow in the steps of his father- a story all too familiar to us. In the 2018 Farm Bill, the Rural Coalition and its partners were successful in securing critical language on heirs property and equitable farm credit opportunities. The farm bill victories will help, but immediate systemic change at every level is essential in order to build the next generation of new and beginning farmers and ranchers.
Ms. Georgia Good, Vice Chair of the Rural Coalition and Director of the Rural Advancement Fund (RAF) , co-presented with Mr. William Booker, RAF’s Farm Educator at the Rural Development workshop. Ms. Good explained that “intergenerational reciprocity” or responding to the simultaneous need of kids to be engaged and of young farmers to be mentored is the foundation of “Growing Farmers” projects.
Mr. Willie Booker, Rural Advancement Fund “Growing Farmers” @ Pre-Conference
Mr. Booker contextualized RAF’s emphasis on both the transfer of farming knowledge as well as the transfer of farmland to a new generation. The lack of available land is compounded by the shift to large industrial farming, and increasing corporate ownership. The historical recognized lack of access to credit for people of color, women and other marginal groups pushes farming further out of reach. RAF helps elders who own small farm holdings with “succession planning,” to enable the land to change hands. This requires clearing settling any prior heir-property issues and securing titles.
Mr. Booker explained that RAF’s curriculum for young farmers is a “values based education,” teaching small vegetable production, money management skills, and the agricultural roots of their rural economy. He ended with a story illustrating the significance of RAF programs introducing children to the outdoors through farming. He described the amazement of a young boy, who went home with a soil-covered carrot in his pocket and a newfound knowledge of how food grows-- a potential young farmer!
Mr.. Good reminded everyone that growing farmers in one of the most impoverished communities in the US has a number of impacts well beyond increasing access to healthy food. Providing stipends for participating young farmers is integral to compounding these impacts. She concluded: “This is how we envision Food Sovereignty”
J. Chavez with Ms. Georgia Good @ the Summit i
Ms. Good reminded everyone that growing farmers in one of the most impoverished communities in the US has a number of impacts well beyond increasing access to healthy food. Providing stipends for participating young farmers is integral to compounding these impacts. She concluded: “This is how we envision food sovereignty.”
Also inducted into the SC Civil Rights Hall of Fame this year, Ms. Georgia Good is shown here with Ms. Betty Henderson when both were recognized in October 2017 for founding the Orangeburg County Consumer Health Council, and the first clinic serving the poor and people of color in Orangeburg.
