Feedback on the Agriculture Department’s “Race Neutral” Program to Address Systemic Inequality for Black, Brown, and Native People
Congress directed the department to create a brand new program to give out money as part of the reconciliation bill. It was also directed to select one or more third parties, or nongovernmental organizations, to carry out the program instead of USDA itself. The legislation was done to address farmers’ concerns about the USDA bias, according to a Democratic staffer.
In his plan for rural America, the candidate stated that the USDA did not do much to alleviate the burdens of systemic inequality for black, brown and Native people for more than 100 years. Referencing class action and big lawsuits brought by farmers, Biden promised to bring equity to the Agriculture Departments methods of supporting farmers.
Advocates for farmers of color have argued that rejections and withdrawals often happen because the multi-step application process is too cumbersome and confusing. Those whose families have generational experience and long-standing outside resources to navigate the federal bureaucracy sail through.
These payments, however, are to all “distressed farmers,” including some white farmers. They may not include all Black farmers. The race neutral program is an alternative to the lawsuit- blocked race-targeted program that Congress passed.
In response to the concerns, USDA said they worked quickly to dole out the funds to farmers most at risk of losing their farms. The department has gone through a more complicated phase.
There’s an opportunity for farmers, advocates, lawmakers, and more to provide advice on selecting the third-party program administrator and to provide recommendations, conducting outreach to farmers who borrowed from USDA, and how the department should even identify who has been discriminated against.
The USDA launched a request for information in October to get public comments about how it will create and implement the program. The comment period was closed in November, and the department is currently looking at the submissions.
The request for information has “very specific questions but people are going to have very different lived experiences and what we really want to know is the thing that would make the program work for them,” the USDA official said. “We want a farm focused program that will work in ways that other programs have not done.”
What’s on the menu for the farm bill? What is on the menu? The case for another farm bill is a crunch time
The Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association gave the Legislators thick milkshakes as they listened to farmers, ranchers and community leaders talk about their needs and wants for the farm bill.
The Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg served as the perfect curtain opener for House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson to begin discussions on the measure that funds many parts of the American food supply chain and rural development.
“We’re working on crunch time here,” Thompson said to open the listening session on Jan. 13. This is an industry that is important to a lot of people. This industry is the most important because it touches every American family more than any other industry.
The once-every-five year piece of legislation is a hodgepodge of policies. The bill is made up of multiple titles — 12 to be exact — that blended together make up a bill known as the biggest safety net for American farmers.
The mayors, crop advocacy groups, labor advocates and more are all fighting for their slice of the farm bill pie ahead of its September expiration.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1151727273/congress-gears-up-for-another-farm-bill-heres-whats-on-the-menu
A listening session on how the Farm Bill expands Employment and Training for formerly incarcerated individuals and crops, focusing on the Center for Employment Opportunities
One such group is the Center for Employment Opportunities. Based out of Harrisburg, CEO is the largest non-profit organization providing pay for training to formerly incarcerated individuals across 12 states. 600,000 people are served each year by the organization.
The program director at CEO came to the listening session hoping that lawmakers would take the opportunity to expand the bill beyond animals and crops.
The farm bill funds a portion of crop insurance. She hopes lawmakers can make it more affordable for farmers to enroll in the programs.
“Essentially significantly reducing their benefits or kicking individuals off SNAP because of receiving income from the SNAP E&T program itself,” Hansard said in her testimony to lawmakers. The participants face a choice of getting the skills needed to ensure their long-term success or having to feed themselves in the short term.
The Employment and Training program for learning and training’s income is being counted as income to calculate SNAP eligibility, according to Hansard.
The Farm Bill: Farmers’ Choices, Resources, and Aid for Climate-Coordinated Disaster Relief Programs in the State of Pennsylvania, as Voted by Representative Deborah Stabenow
“It’s a nice name: the Farm Bill. Dennis Nuxoll, vice president of government affairs at Western Growers is a farmer and said that he is interested in the farm bill. You can be a Librarian if you live in a rural community. Some of the infrastructure of your town can be accessed through the program you work in, as a result of the farm bill. You don’t grow anything, you’re a librarian.
The president of the Pennsylvania Corn Growers testified at a farmers’ show about crop insurance being more accessible. 45% of corn acres in the state don’t have insurance, so farmers can’t take care of their crops if there’s a disaster.
Rural development: The Department of Agriculture is the only federal agency with the explicit mandate of deploying programs to help the development of rural areas. Grants to build hospitals and traditional infrastructure are included in this.
The Congressional efforts to invest in climate-change mitigating efforts have given the title a boost. Lawmakers, however, have long pushed to make sure programs are voluntary and not mandatory for producers. Still, many say the programs are oversubscribed with more demand to be a part of them than there are incentives to give.
In January the ranking member of the House sent out his priorities for the year, and included an expansion of rural broadband, an increase in funding for the 1890 Land Grant African American college and universities student scholarship program and an increase in help for farmers.
Senate Chair Debbie Stabenow led the negotiations on the 2014 and 2018 farm bills. The farm bill is her final one because she won’t be running for reelection in the next election. And she has climate on her mind.
Stabenow wants to investigate how disaster relief programs are designed for producers hardest hit by natural disasters.
The difficulty in the spending is that it is sporadic, as evidenced by Congress being able to appropriate disaster relief funding as needed.
The topic of funding for the bill looms large. Climate, development and agriculture groups are trying to get more funding. When asked where he was expected to find the money for it, Thompson said he had “no idea.”
But he credited the American Rescue Plan, the 2020-era pandemic relief bill, and the Democrats’ reconciliation package for providing pots of money that past farm bills didn’t have as a resource.
Stabenow, who championed the portions of the reconciliation package that added a historic $20 billion to voluntary conservation programs, agrees that this improves the baseline of money lawmakers have to work with.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1151727273/congress-gears-up-for-another-farm-bill-heres-whats-on-the-menu
The Farm Bill: Where Does it Come From? When Will the Senate Appropriate Action Steps Come Into Disagreement?
The House got off to a rocky start with 20 members of the Republican conference voting against electing Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. Mary Miller was a member of the agriculture committee and was present at the Pennsylvania event.
“There may be some times where there’s been some partisan moves. Thompson thinks it’s a bipartisan farm bill once the final votes are cast. “And my goal is to keep it that way from the very beginning.”
There are already signs of opposition. Thompson and other Republicans have said that the proposal to remove the nutrition title from the farm bill is not true. The group has other suggestions, such as abandoning the sugar program and the federal dairy subsidy programs.
In the state of Oklahoma, out of 129,619 total producers in Oklahoma, 9.2% are American Indian/Alaska Native and 1.4% are Black or African American, and .4% Asian compared to 84.9% white, according to the self-reported 2017 Agriculture Census.
The Pigford case was supposed to be settled in 1999 and the people involved should get payments after that. There are many reasons why tens of thousands missed out, including confusion about filing deadlines and attorney malpractice.
The Fertile Farm Service Agency: Defense of the ARPA, a First Native American Served in the Tribal Agriculture Council and Native American Farmers’ Rights
The Farm Service Agency is led by Ducheneaux, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the first Native American in the role. Prior to being at the department, he served as the executive director of the Intertribal Agriculture Council, an advocacy group for Native American farmers. Despite having high loan acceptance rates, Indigenous farmers have been left out of many USDA programs because of allegations of discrimination.
They say barriers to access to programs include incorrect denials, cumbersome paperwork and a lack of clear communication about what applicants could qualify for to begin with.
But the program was swiftly blocked by about 12 lawsuits, including one out of Texas led by former President Donald Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller and current state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. The people argued the program was discriminating against them because they were white.
In an unusual move, the Justice Department let the deadline to appeal the injunctions that froze the program slide, opting to continue the court battle at the local level.
The $5 billion in ARPA was frozen because of injunctions, and the government vigorously defended the program in the courts. “This litigation would likely have not been resolved for years.”
That means complete cancellation for some farmers. For others, it means partial assistance, even after they were promised full cancellation one year ago.
Lucious Abrams is the third generation to take over the family Georgia farm, an operation that has long grown cotton, corn, and soybeans. When he did not receive a loan in time to buy the seeds and supplies he needed, he joined the Pigford v. Glickman class action lawsuit against the USDA.
Farm Loans for Black and Asian Farmers in Minnesota, The First Two Years of Congress: What Did They Walk Out With? A Reappraisal
In 2010, Congress appropriated an additional $1.2 billion in a second round of payouts. Many did not receive them because of more denials of claims. They were further behind on payments and legal fees, and that hurt their credit and bottom line for a long time.
The way people are farming is also changing. The loan system used to be designed for one crop farms but has now been challenged by some farms with multiple crops.
Black and Asian-identifying farmers were the most likely to fail in getting a direct loan during the first two years of the Biden administration.
The executive director said that some farmers in Minnesota do not have a written contract that they need to qualify for loans.
Farmers do not file taxes in a way that would be suitable for the Farm Service Agency. There is no bilingual federal employees, documents and training materials.
“They can enroll in a farm business management course, but it’s all conducted in English. And this particular constituency here does not read, read or write English fluently or understand, so they can sign up for the farm business course, pay $2,000 a year just for this course here and what did they walk out with? Stress,” Janssen said. They walk out without any meaningful information to enhance or fund operations because it’s done in a language they aren’t familiar with.
In-2022: Farmers Were Persistently Left Behind from the Usdas Loan-System, and Where Do They Stand?
“I take that very personally because I’ve been trying to get them in the door since way before I got here,” Ducheneaux said regarding barriers to access to the department that spans across race groups. “My personal goal is to get all of these to as close to 100% as we can.”
He said that the department’s solutions included working closer with cooperative groups after learning from Indian Country. USDA is trying to get information to farmers through agreements they have with organizations on the ground.
We believe this will give us a chance to leverage trust that we do not have in these communities. In some cases, it’s correct, Ducheneaux said. Agreements are spread across various farmer groups like the American Farmers Association and the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
As a result of the agreements, these organizations report being able to increase staff, expand outreach, and increase their ability to give feedback to USDA.
We need to acknowledge the fact that people have been treated badly in the past and that there are still practices that feel discrimination today,” he said. “There is that inherent, intrinsic trust in that NGO or that nonprofit that probably in our lifetime, we’re never going to rebuild it at the agency or department level. So we’ve got to start somewhere, and that’s a great place to begin.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/19/1156851675/in-2022-black-farmers-were-persistently-left-behind-from-the-usdas-loan-system
USDA Loans for Farmers with Discrimination Against Loan Denials and Withdrawals: A Report on the First Half of the Inflation Reform Act
The department plans to shorten the applications from 29 to 13 in an effort to reduce the paperwork and make decisions quickly.
USDA cites having already begun the process of entering into partnerships with nonprofits, reducing paperwork for loan applications and launching an online program to help producers understand which loans they may qualify for in an effort to reduce the rates of denials and withdrawals.
The group met earlier this month, and voted on more than 30 recommendations, and they believe the department can get off to a good start. The final report will be due at the end of the year.
According to Bradshaw, a farmer in Kansas, the rising costs of fuel and production are killing his margins, and that he hasn’t gotten any relief for his lawsuits or debt.
As a part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrat-led spending bill, members slipped in a provision that created a $3.1 billion debt relief program for “economically distressed borrowers.”
The department made automatic payments towards about 11,000 borrowers who were more than 60 days delinquent on their USDA loans, according to Ducheneaux. USDA data analyzed by NPR shows over 13,000 producers have received a payment on their accounts as of Jan. 30.
“We need to be open minded so that we can see if there are some solutions that will help address some of the cumulative impacts of discrimination,” said Dewayne Goldmon, the first Senior Advisors for Racial Equity to the Secretary of Agriculture at USDA. “That’s an important part of the process.”
“I would consider [the efforts] successful when my position is no longer needed. Goldmon pointed out that you don’t need an adviser for racial equity. I have to keep that goal in mind, though I am not being naive.
And since this new program is now race-neutral, those who are particularly concerned about the disparate impact of lending practices on Black and other farmers of color say the move could hide the scope of the problem and lead to further disenfranchisement.
“You lose a lot of the trust when there was very little trust in the beginning,” said Brandon Smith, a cattle rancher in Texas who received a payment and is an outreach coordinator for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. It’s just the trust and what was promised to them that makes someone try to be ungrateful.
Loan Borrowers in Oklahoma and Puerto Rico: The Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on Rural Development and the Social Disdisadvantaged Economy
“The steps we’ve taken so far are really for lack of a better analogy, to stop the bleeding,” said Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of the Farm Service Agency, the lending arm of the department.
“As far as I know, we haven’t had any foreclosures in our guaranteed loans since we began providing this assistance.” That’s an ongoing process to clean up those complex cases,” Ducheneaux said. Having a bankruptcy judge makes them even more complex.
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Puerto Rico are all receiving a lot of money from the inflation reduction act.
In order to be labeled as socially disadvantaged, a producer needs to be people of color and white women. Oklahoma leads the way in lending to those types of borrowers.
Oklahoma and Puerto Rico have a large share of farm loans. Therefore, it is not surprising that they also have more distressed borrowers relative to other states,” said Marissa Perry, press secretary for USDA regarding the rates of payments made toward both states. “In the case of Puerto Rico, in recent years, a number of natural disasters have contributed to delinquencies.”
“Economically, they are (also) disadvantaged. The president of the coffee sector of the Puerto Rican Farm Bureau said that it was not surprising. “Many farms have a lot of land, but the land that is actually producing crops is really small.”
Congress did not make race a factor in determining payments, but the USDA doesn’t track that data. Some of the states with the highest number of USDA loan borrowers who are socially disadvantaged are getting the most of the IRA payments.
“The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was absolutely a tough pill to swallow with regard to the overturning of American Rescue Plan [program],” said Dãnia Davy, director of Land Retention and Advocacy at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, however adding that some results have benefited her membership. A lot of the farmers that we have are very positive about the benefits that they’ve received, even though some people didn’t anticipate getting them. So it’s actually been a surprisingly positive response.”
Smith said farmers who received notice in 2021 that their debt would be forgiven sat in limbo for a year, leading to many of them feeling like the department slow-walked the rollout of the original program, giving time for lawsuits to stall it.
Lewis said he is $600,000 delinquent and falls into the complex case category. He said that the delay in getting any pay under the new program is affecting his ability to get the capital he needs.
I would be an ideal candidate on a case- by-case basis. I’m a good farmer. I had good yields and good character. I got good credit,” he said. Lewis is not able to get other loans because of his late payments.
In June 2022, Rep. Alma Adams, a North Carolina Democratic member of the House Agriculture Committee, sent a letter to USDA asking them to use money appropriated in another section of the COVID-19 relief package, also aimed at tackling inequity, to cover the costs of debt to Black farmers while litigation on the debt relief program continued.
“Unfortunately, our folks have been so shortchanged that I think the numbers will probably bear out that there’s still a significant number of white farmers who not only benefited from the subsidies and the COVID benefits but now even IRA,” Davy said. “That program is not a success for civil rights because you need to address racial discrimination if you want to call it a success for civil rights.”
The government argued in court that white farmers were less likely to be delinquent on their loans, because of the original race-targeted program. White borrowers are less delinquent on their loans than black borrowers, Asian borrowers, American Indian and Alaskan Natives, and Hispanics.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/26/1159281409/black-farmers-worry-new-approach-on-race-neutral-lending-leaves-them-in-the-shad
The USDA Agriculture Commission Report on Recommendations for Improving Farmworker’s Attitudes and Programs, and Identifying Opportunities for Racial Equity
Rod Simmons, is a farmer in North Carolina. He cited familiar problems, like a confusing application process and deadlines, as barriers he faced getting involved with the department’s programs.
When the epidemic hit, 22% of his inventory was lost. He had been close to liquidating his assets to make the loan payments, but the Inflation Reduction Actloan payment gave him two years worth of money.
The Equity Commission at the Agriculture Department has released a report detailing over 30 recommendations to improve farming.
The document was released Tuesday morning and Bronaugh said they didn’t want it to be a repeat of previous reports. We wanted to get to a place of systemic change.
Vilsack noted that there have been underserved populations that desperately need what the US Department of Agriculture can provide. “And as long as I am secretary I am deeply committed to making that happen.”
The 32 recommendations span across four main areas: how USDA works with farmers daily, changes to the structure of the department, farmworkers and other USDA programs such as nutrition assistance. The report recommends that the department:
There are more than 50 recommendations that range from supporting Congress to conducting research into how programs are distributed.
“You will find that in many of the areas that you can apply to be serious about this, steps have already been taken,” Vilsack said. “I suspect that every federal agency has had some history in terms of discrimination, but this is a department that has been willing to begin the process of opening itself up to review — to having folks take a critical look not just at individual circumstances, but systemic issues.”
In closing, the response — which details past actions and new programs already announced — USDA “thanks the Equity Commission for contributing so vitally to that mission and looks forward to ongoing engagement with the Commission to identify opportunities to advance equity for all.”
Helping Black farmers is among the accomplishments to advance racial equity and opportunities the Biden administration highlighted ahead of a visit to Selma, Ala., to mark the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.