- Be fully funded at $10 million for the current fiscal year
- Funding Authority be increased to $50 million in the future, and
- That funding of the program be made mandatory rather than discretionary, there by increasing program stability and not subject to yearly fluctuations or the appropriations process.
In 1920 the USDA reported that there were 925,170 black farmers on the land throughout the United States. By 1978, only 18,816 remained, a decline of 98%, compared to a 63% decline in white farmers in the same period. Today the numbers are even lower, and continue to decline at nearly three times the rate of other farmers. The crisis that has fallen on farm and rural families for the last two decades has become worse in recent years, hitting hardest those most precariously positioned and vulnerable. The poorest counties in the country continue to get poorer and the hardest working farmers are losing there land at alarming rates. Those who have managed to hold on through these treacherous times have had to turn to their communities for assistance. Where federal programs and state USDA officials have fallen short, groups like the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives and the other state coops who comprise the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, and other similar community organizations have stepped up to give farmers the services they need to maintain their place on the land.
USDA has for two decades been in the hot seat when it comes to issues of racial discrimination, equity and justice. Reports throughout the 80's and 90's repeatedly cited civil rights violations by USDA and documented the prevalence of racial bias in the field and in Washington, DC. Following a 1982 Civil Rights Commission Report which attributed the decline of black-owned farms directly to poor service delivery, USDA implemented administratively the Small and Disadvantaged Farmer Initiative to address inequity. The groups who have long served minority farmers finally succeeded in the 1990 Farm Bill to establish legislatively the Outreach and Technical Assistance Program for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers.
The program gave USDA authority and funding to work through community-based organizations and educational institututions to provide outreach and technical assistance to minority farmers. The program enabled institutions with the demonstrated capacity to reach traditionally under-served producers--including the 1890 Colleges and Universities, and community based groups such as the Federation of Southern Cooperatives--to increase minority farm participation in USDA programs. African American and other minority farmers could learn about USDA programs and receive help in many other areas needed to increase the viability of their farms from the organizations and institutions that best understood their needs.
THE JUICY TRUTH
Funding for the Minority Farm Outreach and Technical Assistance Program has always been far below what is needed. Authorized at $10 million when it was established as Section 2501 of the Farm Bill in 1990, the program has been subject to the whims and shortfalls of annual appropriations. Throughout the 90's funding fluctuated between $1 million and $3 million, leaving the organizations that survived off these funds always wondering what programs, offices or staff people they would have to eliminate if the funding was cut the following year. Congress has never funded the Outreach and Technical Assistance Program for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers anywhere near its authorized level of $10 million.
The shortfall and uncertainty in funding have prevented the program from fully servimg the people who could benefit from it. It has left no resources to expand service to many other eligible groups without severely hampering the ongoing services that are still needed where the program is operating. The scant $3 million Congress has provided is the only safety net ton which many black farmers in the Southeast can rely. By stretching this net even further and failing to strengthen it with additional funding, both the farmers who rely on it now, and others who are hoping to benefit from it the future, can be assured of only one thing - that they will all slip through the holes in the netting together.
The Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, recently completed research of our members. By comparing our results, we found that only in areas where the 2501 program was operating did minority farmers participate or even know about USDA programs and services. The program was the only factor that increased the likelihood that farmers had applied for, or participated in, some type of USDA program. In areas 2501 programs were not available for outreach and technical assistance, we found that farmers were unaware of programs, or even who their local USDA service providers were, or where to find them.
Our research underscores the importance of the Outreach and Technical Assistance Program for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers. In our Campaign for a Just Food and Farm Policy with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and Missouri Rural Crisis Center, the Rural Coalition recommend that the Section 2501 Outreach and Technical Assistance Program:
In addition we propose that all future and formerly established farm programs offered by the USDA provide authority and funding to the Secretary of Agriculture to use program funds (separately from 2501 funds) to utilize community-based organizations to provide technical assistance and outreach to help limited resource producers and groups participate. Without involving the organizations and support networks that understand and serve small and people of color farmers, there is little hope that those who still face and must overcome the systemic injustices of USDA will be able to maintain their farms.
To further address the tragedy of land loss in African American and other people of color communities, the Campaign also includes the following proposals.
Establishment of a Voluntary Minority Farmers Registry to monitor minority land holdings and serve as a baseline that would trigger the development of special programs and policies to prevent further land loss.
Establishment of the Small Farms of the New Millennium payment program that would offer payments of $5,000 to $10,000, depending on income, to minority, small and other socially disadvantaged farmers who do not participate in commodity programs. Funds could be used on the farm where they are most needed. This program seeks to address years of inequity in offering payments and financial support to these farmers.
THE JULY SQUEEZE
Help Keep Minority, Small and other Socially Disadvantaged Farmers on the Land
We are asking the Senate to:
- Increase funding authority
for 2501 Minority Farm Outreach and Technical Assistance to
$50 million and make funding for the program mandatory, and therefore
not subject to yearly appropriations.
- Require that authority and
funding to partner with community based organizations for Outreach
and Technical Assistance to socially disadvantaged farmers be
a part of every USDA farmer program
- Establish a minority farm
registry to monitor and prevent minority land loss
- Establish a Small Farms of the New Millennium payment program to help struggling and underserved producers
What you can do:
- Write to your Representative
and Senators and express your concern for the land loss trends
in people of color communities and ask that they support the
recommendations listed above.
- Contact us at 1-866-RURAL-80 to join our Action Alert list and receive future information on how you can ACT! to support these programs.
Be Part of Our Campaign for Food n’ Justice,
visit www.ruralco.org.
Questions on food and farm policy?
Contact Heather Fenney at (202) 628-7160
or email at hfenney@ruralco.org.
To join or support our work:
Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural
1012 14th Street, NW Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 628-7160
Visit www.Ruralco.org or
www.SuperMarketCoop.com.