African-American farmers—who have historically faced racist discrimination by banks, the government, and agribusiness—have waged determined struggles for land over the last decade.

From 1997 to 2002, the agricultural census shows, the number of farm producers who are Black increased by nearly 9 per cent—from 26,700 to more than 29,000.

The numbers of Latino farmers and those who are women also rose during the same five-year period.

At the same time, the total number of farms continued its historic gradual decline, as thousands of exploited farmers face a brutal choice: be forced off the land, or go into debt to increase their acreage and productivity. Between 1997 and 2002 the total number of farms declined from 2.62 to 2.13 million—a drop of nearly 4 percent. The total acreage fell by 1.6 percent, while the average farm size grew by 10 acres to 441 acres.

The government figures also show that a higher number of working farmers have a hard time making ends meet. Nearly 60 percent of farms reported annual income of less than $10,000 in 2002, and another 12 percent income between $10,000 and $25,000.

The figures also show that making a living solely by working the land remains difficult for many. Some 55 percent of farmers of all income levels reported working days off the farm to make ends meet in 2002—a drop from 62 percent in 1997.

At the extreme ends of the income spectrum, only the poorest and wealthiest farmers grew in number over the five-year period. In 2002 there were 19 percent more farms with sales of $2,500 or less, and 0.6 percent more with income of more than $500,000.

The government figures highlight “the changing face of agriculture” in the United States, the upstate New York Sullivan County Democrat reported April 27. The 848,000 women working the land in 2002 made up more than one-quarter of all farm operators. Over the preceding five years, the number of “principal operators” who were women increased by 13 percent—from 210,000 to 236,000.

This figure can be misleading, because many farmers decide to list their spouse as the main owner of the business for tax purposes.

The number of farmers of “Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino origin,” in the USDA’s language, increased by 50 percent to 50,443 over the five-year period.

Between 1997 and 2002 the number of Black farmers increased by nearly 9 percent to a total of 36,000, while American or Alaskan Indians grew by 20 percent, totaling 24,000.

Farmers who are Black in the United States have a long history of struggle against racist discrimination in government lending and other assistance.

A 1997 class action lawsuit against the USDA, backed up by a protest campaign led by Black farmers, helped to publicize the consequences of the racist policies of government agricultural agencies. Federal policies reinforced the impact of the broader migration from rural areas in the South to cities and industry in the north. In 1920 there were 900,000 Black farmers in the United States. In 1997, their number had dropped to 26,785. The percentage of farmland owned by Blacks in the same period dropped from 14 percent to 1 percent.

The Sullivan County Democrat also gave a brief picture of farming in New York state, the nation’s fourth-largest dairy producer and home to 37,500 farms. “While the number of farms nationwide dropped 3.91 percent from 1997-2002, the state of New York dropped less than one percent over the same time period,” it reported. In fact, “New York reported a 1.013 percent growth of farms from 2001 to 2002. Approximately 25 percent of the state’s land area…is dedicated to agricultural production.”

Milk is New York’s leading agricultural product, accounting for more than half of the industry. The state is the third-largest milk producer in the country. In New York, the number of African American farmers grew by 1 percent between 1997 and 2002, according to the USDA figures.  
 
 
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