A centerpiece of the meeting was the initiation of the Minority Farm Register, a new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) program. The register is open to all “socially disadvantage farmers and ranchers.” It will supposedly allow USDA agencies to locate such farmers and inform them of aid programs for which they may be eligible. Signing the register does not in itself guarantee assistance to any farmer.

John Zippert, the federation’s director of programs here, said the group had been fighting for such a register for 15 years, but a key piece of its original proposal was still missing. “We wanted to know how much land people of color had and use that as a baseline,” Zippert said. “We wanted to not let the acreage drop below that baseline.”

Zippert and Ralph Paige, the federation’s executive director, encouraged farmers to nominate themselves and other Black farmers to run for seats on the County Committees of the Farm Service Agency (FSA), a division of the USDA. One function of these committees is to decide who will be given loans in case of a natural disaster, and supports. Farmers who are Black have often been denied such assistance.

The liveliest discussion broke out during the session on the Pigford v. Veneman lawsuit. In 1999 a federal judge issued a consent decree in the suit, which farmers agreed to based on provisions for a tax-exempt $50,000 payment to those who could provide minimal proof of discrimination against them, and canceling outstanding debts owed to the USDA.

Mattie Mack, a lifelong farmer who now grows tobacco in Brandenburg, Kentucky, expressed the frustration of many in the room when she described how getting the funds promised in the settlement of that lawsuit, or debt relief, has been tied up in red tape. “If you call the monitor’s office, they tell you to call the adjudicator,” she said. “If you call the adjudicator, they tell you to call the arbitrator. They give us the runaround, when they need to give farmers the money.”

The federation passed a resolution calling on the “Black Congressional Caucus and all members of Congress to adopt legislation and take action to correct problems and errors with the Black Farmer Class Action lawsuit as well as improve the general condition of all small and disadvantaged family farmers.”

Jeanne FitzMaurice and Lisa Potash contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home