The Biden-Harris Administration recently announced that it is distributing US$2.2 billion to farmers who experienced discrimination from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Black food producers are using the funds to improve their farms and make them more resilient for the future.
“This money will be a lifeline to farmers and ranchers across the country who in the past have been unfairly denied access to USDA lending and safety net programs,” says Senator Cory Booker, who advocated for the newly available funds
The money comes from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides financial assistance to 43,000 farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who were discriminated against by the USDA in the agency’s farm lending programs. According to Tracy Lloyd McCurty, Executive Director of Black Belt Justice Center, who recently met with Booker’s staff, Black farmers will receive US$1.5 billion of the total pool.
President of the National Black Farmers Association John Boyd calls the payout “historic.”
According to an NPR analysis Black farmers have consistently been left behind by the USDA’s loan system. In 1999, Black farmers joined the Pigford v. Glickman class action lawsuit against the agency, alleging discrimination that resulted in the loss of their land and farms. But when the case was settled, many who were eligible to receive a payout never saw their money due to overly confusing filing processes.
The recent announcement from the Biden-Harris Administration is “a hard-fought, bittersweet victory,” McCurty tells Food Tank. “I am…saddened that thousands of our legacy farmers transitioned to ancestorhood without receiving any compensation from the USDA for decades of anti-Black racism.” But she is also “overjoyed” that many of the farmers she is in contact with have received the US$500,000 maximum payment.
And McCurty is already seeing the money in action. She recently returned from Okolona, Mississippi, where she visited members of the Black farming community. Some of these producers are using the new funds to purchase more land and cattle. Others are looking into new opportunities, including hemp production, agrotourism, and organic agriculture.
Producers are also hopeful that the next Secretary of Agriculture will be committed to racial equity because, McCurty notes, there is still work to be done. Of the US$3.1 billion in the IRA allocated for debt cancellation for economically distressed farmers, she explains that at least US$250 million remains available. McCurty hopes that this will be used to erase the debt for legacy farmers completely.
“Clearly, we have more work to do to restore our Black agricultural land base,” McCurty tells Food Tank, “but with this victory in hand we are walking in the right direction toward reparative justice.”
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Photo courtesy of Cornell Watson for Black Belt Justice Center
