Putting my former Iowa farmer “hat” on and remembering how many times my farm family and I had relied on USDA programs to help our farm stay in business, there came a point that I moved on, landing in Washington, D.C., to be appointed by President Bill Clinton to a senior position at USDA. My practical experience turned out to be helpful as we evaluated crop insurance proposals, scheduled educational events at night so farmers could come, searched for ways to help farmers as they faced the hog price debacle, and more. But there were things I didn’t know about and was shocked to learn, e.g., the fact that in many southern states, Black farmers were not allowed to apply for the same programs that had helped our family farm. I learned a lot about the situation, as I think many of us did at USDA.
Dan Glickman was USDA’s Secretary then, and Dan had a habit of saying things like, “What’s the problem? Let’s get a bunch of gurus together and figure out how we can fix it.” So Black Farmers marched in front of USDA’s Buildings, and Dan rolled up his sleeves and recruited a team that included Lloyd Wright, a long-time Black senior NRCS employee who was also a farmer himself.
They struck an agreement. As a loose summary, the agreement was authorized by Congress, but there wasn’t time for an appropriation to be made to follow through and make the payments. Time passed — George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump … no one prioritized the agreement. Now Joe Biden is President; Biden made a commitment to settle the agreement, but the people at USDA who were supposed to follow through somehow managed to change the agreement so that Black Farmers were once again left behind. Why were they left behind? … In part because the new plan required Black Farmers to show proof of applications having been turned down. Well, no. The problem was that Black Farmers were not even allowed to apply — no applications submitted meant that there was no proof in the chain of paperwork. The Court stopped the agreement.
Now Black Farmers are trying again. They aren’t giving up and I applaud them for this. In much more detail, Farm Press Black farmers sue USDA over debt relief promises