The American Rescue Plan: What does this mean for Black farmers?
The history of Black farming in America is centuries long, complex, and filled with continuous challenge. From slavery to present day discrimination, the resulting cumulative effects have shaped the current statistic of the roughly 1.5% of Black farmers that make up today’s food System in America. As Leah Penniman, Black farmer and activist writes in her book Farming While Black, “Racism is built into the DNA of the US food system”. This statistic of just “1.5%” owes itself deeply to the widening gap between Black communities and their access to food, wealth, health, income, and power. Recently, there has been an increase in debt relief programs to help Black farmers, one of these being the American Rescue Plan. However, there’s been some discussion as to whether these programs properly address the historical damages of USDA discrimination.
The American Rescue Plan (H.R. 1319) is a Biden-Harris administration response to the COVID 19 Pandemic. Signed by President Biden on March 11, 2021, the package of $1.9 trillion is intended to combat the devastating effects of the pandemic including impacts on public health and the economy. According to NACo, “as part of the $362 billion in federal fiscal recovery aid for state and local governments, $65.1 billion is provided in direct aid to counties and an additional $1.5 billion for public land counties’’ (Mar. 12 et al., 2021). The bill allocates capital and attention to many different sectors of society including: Veteran’s Affairs, Environment and Public Works, Small businesses, Education, Housing, Healthcare, and Agriculture. With a large portion of funds allocated to the USDA, it is a responsive way of recognizing that socially disadvantaged farmers have faced systemic discrimination with cumulative effects that have, led to a substantial loss in the number of socially disadvantaged producers, reduced the amount of farmland they control, and contributed to a cycle of debt that was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to disruptions in the food supply chain due to COVID-19, ARP seeks to make long-term investments to increase the resiliency of the food supply in the future. These investments include, infrastructure, increasing equity, and retooling support for food processors, food banks and farmers markets. Additionally, ARP will provide grants and loans to either reimburse or purchase personal protective equipment and other measures including test kits to keep essential food workers safe. Section 1001 provides $4.000,000,000 to the Secretary of Agriculture, $3,600,000,000 of which is to support the food supply chain in pursuant of purchasing food and agricultural commodities, the distribution of agricultural commodities to individuals in need, to make grants and loans available for small or mid sized food processors, farmers markets, processing vessels, or other organizations to respond to COVID-19, and to make loans and grants in effort to provide other assistance to maintain and improve agricultural supply chain resiliency (H.R.1319, 2021). Additionally, ARP will provide grants and loans to either reimburse or purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) and other measures including test kits to keep essential food workers safe. The allocation of grants and loans towards ppe specifically for food supply chain workers is crucial as it was a necessary component prior to the pandemic. People who work on farms wear PPE to protect themselves from pesticides, dust and other health hazards such as COVID-19.
Executive director of the Black Belt Justice Center, Tracy Lloyd McCurty said “This is the most significant piece of legislation with respect to the arc of Black land ownership in this country.” However, while acknowledging the potential significance of these payments, many are claiming they do not constitute reparations. William Darity, professor of public policy at Duke University claims that “$5 billion allocation is a pittance” and that more accurate estimates of economic loss to Black farmers due to USDA policies and processes of land appropriation sits closer to $250 and $350 billion (Reiley, 2021).
Sources
Reiley, L. (2021, March 10). Relief bill is most significant legislation for black farmers since civil Rights Act, experts say. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/08/reparations-black-farmers-stimulus/
United States, Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). Farm Loan Programs. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-loan-programs/index
