Some Black farmers worry the USDA's new approach on 'race neutral' lending will leave them behind — after lawsuits led by white farmers stymied a race-targeted program.
Lateef Dowdell watches the sunrise from what remains of land once belonging to his uncle Gil Alexander, who was the last active Black farmer in the community of Nicodemus, Kan., Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021.Lateef Dowdell watches the sunrise from what remains of land once belonging to his uncle Gil Alexander, who was the last active Black farmer in the community of Nicodemus, Kan., Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021.
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.In October, USDA began making automatic payments to the accounts of farmers who were 60 days or more delinquent.
He said the next step is to deal with 15,600"complex cases," including borrowers on the brink of foreclosure and those near delinquency. Puerto Rico, which has not recovered from the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, also has aIt has a farming population of 8,230 of which 7% identify as Black, 90% identify as white, .8% as other and 1% as more than one race, according to the self-reported 2017 Census of Agriculture. About 99%, regardless of race, identify as Hispanic or Latino ethnic origin,"Economically, they are disadvantaged.
USDA officials say that since Congress did not make race a consideration for payments, it does not track that data. Nonetheless, some patterns stick out because some of the states with the highest number of USDA loan borrowers who are socially disadvantaged are getting the most of the IRA payments.$5 billion toward debt relief
"There are people who are still living from the first round of Pigford and they've never been made whole," Davy said."And a lot of times when people talk about Pigford, they think that Pigford addressed all of the racial discrimination that Black farmers faced, but it was really for a finite period of time."Smith says producers are happy about payments but upset there isn't full loan forgiveness and confused about the rollout.
"This work requires diligence and time to make sure we are doing right by producers and fundamentally changing our approach to be better and in a long-lasting way," said Dewayne Goldmon, senior advisor for racial equity to the Secretary of Agriculture.
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.
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