The Biden-Harris Administration announced that it issued a total of $2.2 billion to 43,000 qualified applicants in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA), Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP). A majority of the payouts went to Black farmers and ranchers.
About $1.76 billion in payments were issued to Black producers in the U.S. in a financial assistance program that attempts to alleviate financial loss due to discrimination. “Over 80 percent of the recipients were Black farmers,” said the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Xochitl Torress Small at the Congressional Black Caucus’ Mississippi Policy Conference in Tunica, Mississippi this past weekend. She furthered, “Over 70 percent of the recipients came from the Southeast [region of the U.S.].”
The program, enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act, detailed that growers in Mississippi (13,283) and Alabama (10,907) were the highest representation of awardees. Mississippi farmers, which garnered the most payouts, showed that 5,892 producers were given payments. Another 7,391 who planned to open farming or ranching operations, but “reported they were unable to do so because they could not get a USDA loan,” were also issued financial allotments.
“Farmers and ranchers work around the clock to put food on our tables and steward our Nation’s land. But for too long, many farmers and ranchers experienced discrimination in farm loan programs and have not had the same access to federal resources and support,” said President Joe Biden in a release.
Launched in July 2023, the program aimed to address generations of inequity experienced by farmers in the USDA’s farming lending program before January 2021. Because the initiative was to account for discrimination received at the hands of USDA workers and affiliated institutions, the program used third-party reviewers and built in aggressive outreach strategies with independent organizations to ensure that farmers knew about the program and how to file.
In the campaign, the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) was part of the outreach. Led by farmer-advocate, John Boyd, they pushed out a nationwide campaign to explain the process and assist farmers in applying. “No matter how it is sliced, the $2.2 billion in payouts is historic. […] This victory is not just for the NBFA, but for all Black farmers and their families who have endured discrimination and struggled to make ends meet,” said Boyd.
To rope in as many applicants and provide time in completing the petitions, the USDA extended the submission deadline several times. The $2.2 billion one-time payments were rolled out at the end of this past July.
There are farmers who said the process was not as seamless as it has been presented. One grower said that there was so much misinformation about the discrimination program that they missed out in applying. The farmer spoke to Ark Republic with the agreement that they would remain anonymous. “I sued the USDA and prevailed, but didn’t know that I could apply,” they told Ark Republic.
The farmer who says they are very active in their robust agricultural community pointed out that even the local USDA Farm Service Agency in their area was not fully equipped with enough information to pass on. “While I am happy to see others get some form of relief, I just wish there was a better information campaign.”
In a fact sheet, the USDA reported that there were “lawyers and groups spreading misleading information about [the application] process, pressuring people to sign retainer agreements, and asking people to fill out forms with private and sensitive information.” Two farmers told Ark Republic that they received postcards to attend a workshop about the application process. It was from an agricultural organization they belonged to, but the organizers never showed up. The growers asked to remain anonymous.
Another farmer who did receive a payment says that it would do little for their operation, though they will use it where they could. As well, they wondered how the decisions were made on how farms were assessed in the disbursements. That information has yet to be provided by the USDA.
“While this financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s losses or pain endured, it is an acknowledgement. My hope is that this will ensure that many farmers can stay on their farms, contribute to our nation’s food supply, and continue doing what they love,” admitted Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack who received scrutiny for his treatment of Black farmers in a previous tenure during the Barack Obama presidency. He was reappointed as the USDA head by Pres. Biden.
Moreover, the southeastern farmer voiced another concern that is whispered in the Black agricultural community. They worry about the sentiment from future governments seeing that Black farmers need to be “happy with what they got” and not to complain. This type of perspective can hinder future claims, but according to Dr. Dwayne Goldman, a Senior Advisor for Racial Equity to the Secretary of Agriculture said that the focus on “equity” will be paramount in the USDA moving forward.
The Administration said that it would use the data collected from the applicants to “provide a roadmap for USDA” and “fine-tune” their efforts in equity at the national, regional and local levels. One point of data that might change is the number of Black farmers in the country. The reported data shifts between 35,000 and 42,000 roughly. With the applicant numbers, it might glean insight on who the country’s producers are.
For Deputy Secretary Torress Small, the payments are a step towards a USDA that has worked to redefine itself in the Biden-Harris Administration. “We see [DFAP payouts] as setting the stage for the future,” she said to hundreds at the policy conference.
More than one way to ‘skin a cat’
The bold measure was the Biden-Harris Administration’s move to provide some type of financial reprieve to minority farmers after an injunction was placed on the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act. Shortly after the bill passed through Congress in 2021, two white farming groups, one in Florida and the other in Texas, sued the federal government. A judge halted the continued rollout of the program.
Two years later, with mounting pressure by Black agriculturalists and advocates, the Administration pivoted. Rather than focus on social identity and ability classification, the DFAP opened its application process to all, as long as applicants showed discrimination within the parameters issued by the USDA. In the end, out of the 53,000 applications submitted, most were under-represented farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
Across the country, elected officials and organizational leaders applauded the discrimination payouts. “This money will be a lifeline to farmers and ranchers across the country who in the past have been unfairly denied access to USDA lending and safety net programs,” stated Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). A Black AG advocate, Sen. Booker introduced a bill in 2020 to remedy the longstanding discrimination and land loss amongst Black growers in the Justice for Black Farmers Act. It was reintroduced in 2023, but did not make it to the voting floor.
The money is not anything close to a free handout or compensation. The USDA emphasizes that it is a way to “ease” any “financial loss” experienced by producers or those who planned to set up an operation, but were discriminated against. Plus, the money given is taxable.
For now, the historical action is celebrated in agriculture and social justice circles. At the same time, advocates like Boyd have taken the issue of heirs property to be included in discrimination claims. The USDA has yet to comment on the lawsuit.
The real farm didn’t get anything and the scammers got away with all the money, it needs to be an investigation
I agree
The “Real Farm” as you stated it, has always gotten everything. White folks got welfare from the Government after slavery because the government felt sorry for them losing their free black labor. Black folks worked, beaten, hung, limbs chopped off, women and girls raped everyday and night. Then when they were set free, they had nothing. No homes, food, clothing, land, animals, livestock. Nothing! So if Black folks had absolutely nothing, why then would the government give handouts to whites? They were lazy and dumb. They had no knowledge of how to farm, raise livestock, cook, raise gardens; So, who are the scammers that got away with all the money and everything else? That is what needs to be investigated. But…. oh wait…. people have been investigating this all along and come up with, White people are evil, greedy and low down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a real farmer and sent in 24 pages of documents and most people just wrote a story and got 100,000$ or more this program was taken over by fraudulent people
I was a very disappointed for real farmers in Mississippi and some real farmers were denied seems like it to me that they have to money to older men and a lot of women, I been knowing all my life and they never farmed anything, what a blow to Mississippi real farmers and the DFAP is lying about everything and I wonder why didn’t the USDA do this program, they would have known the real farmers like they did with the 22006 something is fishy
What a shame
So many people in Oklahoma lied about being discriminated against most of them didn’t even have any land let a lone farmed or even tried to ask for a loan from the USDA at a bank! I personally know several individuals who received that money and never had two nickels to rub together beforehand!!! They had group meetings in different areas and were told and showed what to put on the application that’s me in itself would be fraud. Sad sad sad for the real people that was discriminated against however whom were denied!!! Just like the PPP fraud back doing the pandemic individuals need to be held accountable for scamming the USDA!!
Meant to say that to me in itself would be fraud!
How can I applied on behave of my father and mother who were farmers I did once before a long time ago when this lady said she was working for someone to help us never heard anything where is the justice to get money for my late mother and father
Will there be a new application starting September 1, 2024. .
This was a 1-time payment program that congress voted on The USDA official at the meeting I attended did not indicate any new application. They said that was it and the money was spent. Have yet to hear otherwise
Herd via many voices that Black Farmers discrimination application will be reopened in September-is there any validation to this information?
That is incorrect. The application is over. We spoke with a USDA official and received a confirmation.
So many black farmers In my area did not know
about the discrimination lawsuit. I am one who
didn’t know.
I was also denied an opportunity to receive compensation, I am a farmer in Alabama. I filled the application for the inflation reduction act but was not in the final disbursement,
Please identify the Heirs and look at who paid the taxes by looking at the canceled checks and receipts . Many black Farmers struggled to pay these
bills but never got a dime in this settlement while family members were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s not fair. Many farmers land was sold by the county because they could not pay the few dollars they owed in taxes less than a few hundred dollars, and there land was worth tens of thousands dollars. Something should be done about this.
I grew up on my fathers farm in Arkansas and worked on our farm all my entire life. There was a time when my father had tried to get a loan with FHA to build his farm land and his equipment up because our family had gotten bigger we needed more to provide for our selves. at the same time a white next door to our farm which we helped would borrow Money from FHA when my dad and me where all ways told NO New Farmers at this time and we wouldn’t get money till after the original farmers loans where approved and given out and that would be the Month of July. these same White Framers would get the whole loan in a check paid to them and the Farmer we Helped Got over 425,000.00 and moved over night with the money in his pockets to another state and started another business even he dead and gone his family got a new start still with Farmers Home why is that being over looked, how white farmers badly did the systems 3 & 4 members of the family receiving Gov. payments on one farm in south AR. The so call Delta has always been corrupt and against Black farmers. Now these ASCS offices don’t have any records pertaining to black farmers when ever moneys the subject to black farmers