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 Lawyers Land Loss Prevention Project, 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
A Greener World
A Well-Fed World
ActionAid USA
Advancing Collective Equity
African Alliance of Rhode Island
Agri-Cultura Cooperative Network
Agricultural Institute of Marin
Agricultural Missions, Inc
Agroecology Research-Action Collective
Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas
Ambrosia Orchard
American Indian Mothers, Inc.
American Sustainable Business Council
Angelic Organics Learning Center
Ann Arbor Farmers Market
Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture
Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation
Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council
Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake Counties Farmers Union (Ohio)
Asian American Farmers Alliance
Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement
Awaken Space
Beyond Pesticides
Black Family Land Trust
Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
Black Farmers and Ranchers New Mexico
Boise Land & Cattle Farm
Border Agricultural Workers Project
Boston Food Forest Coalition
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR BETTER COMMUNITIES
California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN)
California Farmer Justice Collaborative
California FarmLink
California Institute for Rural Studies
Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
Catskill Mountainkeeper
Cattle For The Kingdom
Celebrating Women’s Leadership in Food
Center for an Agricultural Economy
Center for Food Safety
Central Texas Farmers Cooperative Association
Certified Naturally Grown
Chicago Food Policy Action Council
Church Women United in New York State
Coffee Pot Farms
College of the Atlantic
Community Alliance for Global Justice
Community Alliance with Family Farmers
Community Farm Alliance
Community Food and Justice Coalition
Compañeras Campesinas
Concerned Citizens of Tillery
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces
Cottage House, Inc.
DAJ Associates LLC
Dakota Rural Action
Dietel and Partners
Eames Ranch
Earth Action, Inc.
Earthjustice
Equity Trust, Inc.
Fair Farms
Fair Food Network
Fair World Project
Family Farm Action Alliance
Family Farm Defenders
Farm Aid
Farm and Fish for Life
Farm Fresh Rhode Island
Farm to Institution New England
Farms to Grow, Inc.
Farmshare Austin
Farmworker Association of Florida
Filipino Farmers Cooperative
Food & Water Watch
Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT)
Food First
Food Roots
Food Solutions New England
Freed Seed Federation
FRESHFARM
Friends of Family Farmers
Friends of the Earth
FrontLine Farming
GMO Free USA
GoFarm
Good Meat Project
Greater KC Food Policy Coalition
Green State Solutions
Green Village Initiative
GROW North Texas
Hall Sapp Properties, LLC
Hartford Food System, Inc
Hazon
Headwater Food Hub
HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance
Health Care Without Harm
Heifer USA
Hempstead Project Heart
Holyoke Food and Equity Collective
Idaho Organization of Resource Councils
Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
International Center for Technology Assessment
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
JJ Farm
Just Food and Water
Just Food of Douglas County, KS
Kansas Black Farmers Association
Kansas Rural Center
KC Healthy Kids
Kingdom Community Development Services
Kiss The Ground
La Mujer Obrera
La Semilla Food Center
Land Based Jawns
Land For Good
Land Stewardship Project
Latino Farmers of the Southeast
Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability
Lehigh Valley Food Policy Council
Maccabee Seed Company
Maine Farmland Trust
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
Mandela Partners
Maseualkualli Farms
Massachusetts Farm to School
Massachusetts Food System Collaborative
Menikanaehkem Inc.
Michigan Food and Farming Systems
Mighty Gnome Market Garden
Minnow
Missouri Coalition for the Environment
Missouri Farmers Union
Missouri Rural Crisis Center
MN350
MOSES—Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service
Multicultural Refugee Coalition
NAACP of Duplin County
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Association of Social Workers
National Black Food and Justice Alliance/National Black Land and Power Coalition
National Co+op Grocers
National Family Farm Coalition
National Farm to School Network
National Organic Coalition
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
National Wildlife Federation
National Young Farmers Coalition
Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society
Neighborhood Compost
Neighboring Food Co-op Association
New England Farmers Union
New Entry Sustainable Farming Project
New Mexico Farmers' Marketing Association
New Mexico Food & Agriculture Policy Council
New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group
New Mexico Land Grant/Merced Consejo
NOFA-VT
North American Marine Alliance
North Carolina Farmworkers' Project
Northeast Organic Association Massachusetts Chapter
Northeast Organic Farm Association-Interstate Council
Northeast Organic Farming Association - Massachusetts Chapter
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY)
Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides
Nourish Colorado
Now You Know New Mexico
Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association
Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project
On Higher Ground
On Pasture
Operation Spring Plant
Ophelia's Blue Vine Farm
Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network
Oregon State University Center for Small Farms & Community Food Systems
Organic Farmers Association
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Organic Growers School
Organic Seed Alliance
Organización en California de Líderes Campesinas, Inc
Orikaika Ventures
Pasa Sustainable Agriculture
Patrick Family Farms
PCC Community Markets
People unlimited and Southwest Food Coalition
People's Food Co-op
PHI GLOBAL LLC
Pinelands Preservation Alliance
Pinnacle Prevention
Pivot Produce
Portland Meat Collective
Prescott College
Public Advocacy for Kids (PAK)
Quivira Coalition
Quivira Coalition
Rancher
Real Food Generation
Real Food Media
Regenerative Organic Alliance
Renewing the Countryside
Roberson Farms
Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA)
Rural Communities Resource Center
Rural Development Leadership Network
Rural Organizing
Rural Vermont
Slow Food USA
Socially Responsible Agriculture Project
Sol Seeker Farm, Inc
Soul Fire Farm Institute
Source Organic
South New England Farmers of Color Collaborative (SNEFCC)
Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network
Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc.
Steward Holdings (US), Inc.
Sustainable Business Network of MA
Sustainable Food Center
SUSTAINABLE IOWA LAND TRUST
Terrell Ranch-African American Owned
Texas Coalition of Rural Landowners
Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
Texas Tribal Buffalo Project
The Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger
The Common Market
The Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive
The John Merck Fund
The Land Connection
The Natural Farmer, NOFA
They Keep Bees
Tilth Alliance
Top 10 Produce LLC
Town of Atrisco
Town of Tome Land Grant
Toxic Free North Carolina
Traisin
True Kimchi
Union of Concerned Scientists
UpRoot Colorado
Urban Roots
Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund
Virginia Association for Biological Farming
Wallace Center at Winrock International
We Grow Urban Farm
West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition
Western Colorado Alliance
Western Organization of Resource Councils
Wisconsin Farmers Union
Women of Color/Global Women's Strike
Women, Food & Agriculture Network
World Farmers
Yisrael Family Farm
Zinnia’s Bakehouse