Farmland Access

Farmer and SCLT Board Member Edith Paye, harvesting with her son at Urban Edge Farm

In a historic move to address decades of systemic discrimination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently distributed $2 billion to nearly 43,000 Black farmers across the country – just two in RI. This payout, while a significant step, represents only a fraction of the long-standing injustices faced by Black farmers in their interactions with the USDA.

The roots of this discrimination run deep. As far back as 1965, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights confirmed that the USDA discriminated against Black farmers. However, little was done to address the problem and it became systemic over decades. The consequences were devastating: the number of Black-run farms dropped by 96% over the last century. In that span, acres owned by Black farmers dwindled from 20 million to just 3.5 million. Today, a staggering 98% of all agricultural land in the US is owned by white people. Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of Legal Defense Fund, values the land loss alone – never mind the incalculable ripple effects of generational wealth robbery inflicted on Black farmers – at $326 billion.

The recent payout is part of the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP) established by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Tom Vilsack, USDA Secretary, emphasizes that the payouts are, plainly, an “acknowledgement by the department,” and should not be seen as “compensation for anyone’s loss or the pain endured.” To be eligible, farmers had to document their experiences of discrimination in working with the Department of Agriculture, prior to 2021, in a 40-page application that was due this past January.

John Boyd, a fourth-generation Black farmer and founder of the 40-year-old National Black Farmers Association, describes this as “a very, very historic payout for Black farmers,” but recognizes systemic changes will not be solved by the payments. Boyd, who has been organizing and educating Black farmers in the fight for justice, including assisting hundreds to complete their DFAP applications, shared his personal experiences of being spat on, called racial slurs, and having his loan forms torn up in front of him by USDA officials.

The scale of the payouts varied significantly. Over 23,000 individuals who have or had a farming or ranching operation received between $10,000 and $500,000, with an average of about $82,000. The hope is that this financial assistance will help many farmers stay on their farms, contribute to the nation’s food supply, and continue doing what they love. Another 20,000 individuals who planned to have a farming operation but were unable to do so due to USDA loan denials received between $3,500 and $6,000, with an average of $5,000.

Despite this acknowledgment, the fight for equity in agriculture is far from over. Boyd and other advocates are still pushing for a $5 billion debt relief program for “socially disadvantaged” farmers that was initially promised by the USDA in 2021 but now stands blocked by ongoing lawsuits from white farmers who decry it as discriminatory.

As the USDA continues its efforts to address historical injustices, the agency intends to use information gathered through the DFAP applications to fine-tune program equity at national, regional, and local levels. These efforts are reported to include diversifying agency leadership, streamlining loan processes, and implementing new procedures to reduce human discretion in loan decision-making. Lucious Abrams, also a fourth generation Black farmer, expressed his distrust in the USDA’s claims of reform to the Duke Law Journal: “You go and stick your hand in a hole and a rattlesnake bites it the first time; then you go back there a second time, it bites you the second time. What do you think you are going to do the third time?”

The payout, while significant, is just one step in a long journey towards equity in American agriculture. As John Boyd puts it, “The arc of justice bends slow; it bends slower for Black people, but I never give up.”