Black farmers say Warren's farm plan wouldn't solve their biggest problem

[RandySF]

More than sixty black farmers, advocates and academics have signed onto a letter critiquing Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s farm plan, saying it fails to adequately help African American farmers.

The letter, being circulated among liberal agriculture and civil rights activists, says Warren has failed to take on structural problems at the Department of Agriculture, which they call an “out of control agency” that employs “on-going discrimination” that harms blacks in the farming community, according to a draft of the letter.

Warren’s plan largely focused on consolidation in the agriculture industry and leaves the USDA intact. It does include a section on black farmers and proposes auditing the department to be sure it’s not discriminating, increasing funding to existing initiatives that offer legal services to those in danger of losing their farms, earmarking more funds for loans to minorities and fully funding the department’s civil rights office.

We feel as though you just can’t throw money at the problem at USDA,” said Lawrence Lucas, president emeritus of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, who helped write the letter and is collecting signatures for it. “You have to do a major overhaul of the system and make it functional.”

In the letter, the advocates said they “applaud” Warren’s efforts to address black farmers and noted that she’s the only potential Democratic nominee to do so. But they also called on her to “correct factual errors” and “refashion” her plan into a proposal that “would provide black farmers, at long last, with some measure of justice,” according to a draft.

The loss of black-owned farmland is a major concern among civil rights groups and academics who say that racist federal policies have led to blacks losing their land at much higher rates than whites and Hispanics. The problem has roots in the post-Reconstruction era but has persisted to modern times, with an estimated six million acres of black-owned farm land dispossessed from 1950 to 1969, according to September cover story in The Atlantic entitled “The Great Land Robbery: The shameful story of how 1 million black families have been ripped from their farms.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/black-farmers-say-warrens-farm-plan-wouldnt-solve-their-biggest-problem/2019/08/31/171b6d66-cb4d-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html

[kacekwl]

1. Question not asked or answered,

What is the black farmers idea ?

[oldsoftie]

4. And does the Fed govt ask the race of a farmer before they enter a farm program?

That itself would be illegal
Seems more of a hit job on Warren

[JI7]

2. looks like they still think she can help

they just want her to listen to their concerns and address those points.

and she is the type that will do so.

[backtoblue]

3. +1

[bluewater]

6. +1000

[B Stieg]

9. Exactly. And I bet she won't disappoint with her response...

she needs to attract more of these voters!

[PatrickforO]

5. Again, no president has such far-reaching powers to fix things.

She will have to work with Congress, negotiate and compromise, and when a bill finally gets through to be signed into law, it will reflect that negotiation and compromise.

That said, by elevating the issue, these African American farmers can be sure Warren is listening, and will add their concern into the negotiating mix in terms of USDA reform.

What we REALLY need to do is get the lobbies and dark money out of DC, because right now, ag policy is set via pressure from dairy, meat and grain associations. Remember Romney? "Corporations are people, too, my friend!" And Citizens United, "Dollars are free speech!"

Get rid of those things because they are the root cause of the problem - then people can elevate their issues and actually be heard.

Cause you know, it costs a corporation about $95K to get a House member elected, and they have an average 18 year tenure. Thus, a US Congressperson is one of the best investments any corporation can make!

[emmaverybo]

7. The Atlantic article was an eye-opener. It is long, long, and long, long has been the injustice.

“The Great Land Robbery” is difficult to read because the truth is sickening.

[Hoyt]

8. Not a Warren fan. But in her defense, I bet the first thing she will do is get rid of Sonny Perdue

a racist and incompetent administrator.

[LincolnRossiter]

10. I can't think of a single non-uniformed senior official appointed by Trump who will or should

survive the next admin’s purge. Scum. Everyone of them nearly as bad as Trump. Cowardly, incompetent, and unpatriotic.

[Blue_true]

11. Any Trump appointee should be fired during the first hour of the new

Presidency. They are incompetent asslickers that add no value. The career people in each agency can help the new appointees get settled in.

[5starlib]

12. Well Warren does market herself as the person with a plan for EVERYTHING...

no need stopping when it comes to black farmers...waiting...