BY DOUG JENNESS
ST. PAUL, Minnesota - "We're all in the same boat
together, and if we don't get together and fight, we'll sink
together." This was the theme North Carolina farm leader Gary
Grant brought to farmers and their supporters in western
Minnesota during a February 10-14 tour of the state.
Speaking to potluck luncheon meetings in the prairie towns of Browerville and Watson, Grant described the worsening situation for working farm families and how farmers who face racial discrimination are even worse off.
Grant, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, pointed to the significance of the fight against the discriminatory policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This struggle has centered around a class-action suit on behalf of farmers who are Black. Last month the USDA and the lawyers for the farmers agreed to a consent decree. Grant said that there are many inadequacies in the decree and that he other leaders of the fight plan to press to expand and guarantee the benefits farmers are afforded under the decree at a "fairness hearing" in Washington, D.C., on March 2. There will be a rally outside the courthouse that day.
Farmers participating in the meetings included dairy, hog, and beef producers. One of the dairy farmers, describing the plight of farmers in Minnesota to the audience in Browerville, said that three dairy farms go under every day in the state.
The meeting in Browerville was sponsored by the Central Minnesota Citizens Organized Acting Together and the Whole Farm Cooperative based in nearby Long Prairie. The gathering in Watson was organized by the Western Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association. Together the two meetings drew more than 50 participants. Several people said they were considering going to the March 2 rally in Washington. The February 10 meeting in Browerville, the first on the schedule, was covered prominently in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and KTCA-TV, the Twin Cities affiliate of the Public Broadcasting System.
Grant also spoke to meetings at Macalaster College in St. Paul, the University of Minnesota, and Carleton College in Northfield. Several of the students at the Macalaster meeting who come from farm families were inspired by Grant's presentation and set a date to organize a group to go to Washington, D.C., for the March 2 events. Two farmers from the Northfield area came to the meeting at Carleton.
On the final day of his visit, Grant addressed the congregation of the Shiloh Baptist Church in St. Paul.
Money raised from honoraria, collections, and sales of T- shirts and literature cleared $2,300 after expenses.