Regaining Black farmers’ trust is “challenging,” says advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture
Regaining Black farmers’ trust is “challenging,” says advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture
As part of the American Rescue Plan in 2021, the Biden administration allocated $4 billion to address the history of racial injustice in the farming industry. Socially disadvantaged farmers would be able to apply for loan forgiveness payments through the Department of Agriculture. Shortly after, a federal judge blocked the payments following more than a dozen lawsuits from white farmers claiming the payments were racially discriminatory.
Even after filing countersuits, Black farmers are starting to lose faith in the Biden administration. In an article for Capital B News, John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, said he was counting on the payments to wipe the slate clean.
“This administration … just abandoned us, left us out there high and dry. That’s why I turned to the courts,” Boyd told Capital B. The Department of Agriculture is now accepting applications for the loan repayment program as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, but the program is no longer tailored to socially disadvantaged farmers.
Dewayne Goldmon is the senior advisor for racial equity to the Secretary of Agriculture. “When you can shift the conversation from complaints and criticisms to solutions, that’s when we start to make progress,” he said in an interview with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal. Goldmon spoke with Ryssdal about how the Biden administration can regain the trust of Black farmers across the country. The following is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Kai Ryssdal: So let me ask you — first of all, you know, you’re a practicing farmer, in addition to doing all the policy stuff that we’ll get to in a minute — how are things on the farm these days?
Dewayne Goldmon: It was a challenging year, we had lots of rain early on that made getting the crop being kind of challenging, and then rains in June that were really helpful. And now it’s hot and dry, and we trying to keep everything watered and coming along, and things are looking pretty well.
Ryssdal: Good, good, good. I imagine all the policy work you do and the advising you do with the Department of Agriculture keeps you pretty busy — and as you said, away from the farm. I do want to note, though, that these are challenging times, not just for you as a farmer but for you as a guy who now has to convince Black farmers in this economy that the Department of Agriculture is on their side. Because it’s difficult for Black farmers to get the resources that they believe they have been promised from the federal government.
Goldmon: Right, you’re spot on Mr. Ryssdal. I mean, it is challenging, and some of the hurdles that we’ve encountered as we’ve been marching toward a more equitable USDA have heightened the challenges. But we continue to make steady progress towards working with Black farmers and all of our customers on making sure that, you know, we show up the right way and we’re addressing their needs their concerns in a way that is meaningful to them. Farming is a lovely occupation, but it’s very diverse. And so, you know, it’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all approach, particularly when you look at the diversity of our producers and their unique backgrounds. But yeah, we do continue to make steady progress.
Ryssdal: As you look at your are they customers, clients — I don’t know — but as you look at Black farming in this economy, what do you suppose their biggest challenges are?
Goldmon: A couple of them. On the one hand, I’ve heard it said that when other farmers get a cold, Black farmers get pneumonia. And that’s to point out that because of some of the disparities that’s well-established in the history of Black farmers in this country, you do find a set of customers that have been left out of key opportunities. And we find ourselves trying to deal with those disparities. And so, you asking about my little farm, you know, the fact that we are not set up to irrigate, for instance, there’s still a gap in irrigation among Black farmers. And that means that when drought comes, a lot of them find themselves in a position where they’re not able to respond so that you get behind and it gets harder and harder to adapt and keep production where it needs to be in order to sustain an operation. And as we get serious about this work, we find ourselves trying to invest in policies that will really help improve infrastructures that will make all of our farmers more resilient, and that’s certainly important to black farmers.
Ryssdal: You strike me, Dr. Goldmon — and look, we’ve never met and we’ve spoken exactly twice — you strike me as a guy who doesn’t like to sit in an office, but rather would get out and talk to people. You’d rather get out and talk to people and maybe walk their land with them? And I guess my question is — and please don’t take this pejoratively — but how do you get them to trust you when the misdeeds on the part of the federal government and the Department of Agriculture, go back decades, if not more, in the treatment of Black farmers in this economy?
Goldmon: You know, it can be tough. I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with some of our farmers who are literally pissed off. And it’s not unwarranted. What I have to remind myself is, Dewayne, they’re pissed off at the system, not necessarily you, even though it gets hard to separate those sometimes, OK? But the one thing that I’ve learned from engaging in those kinds of discussions is that eventually you’ll come to common ground. When you can shift the conversation from complaints and criticisms to solutions, that’s when we start to make progress. I mean, growing up as a third-generation farmer in southern Arkansas, I can now look back on our history and see some of the missed opportunities. I can see things that were afforded to some folks in our community, some of our white neighbors, that my dad really didn’t have a realistic chance at. And it’s those kinds of things, it’s those kinds of observations that I think lends a little bit of credibility to the work that we’re trying to do and helps us, you know, on our path to equity.
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