Farming family faces current, historical challenges through faith
Jul. 11—OKOLONA — L.C. "Doc" Gladney was born into farming. Following his dad's footsteps, he's been farming since his teens, pausing only once in his lifetime — to serve for three years during World War II.
At 97, the Okolona native is retired in name only. His son-in-law, the Rev. Odell Bowens, 71, runs a cattle farm and grows his own hay, and Gladney often is alongside him.
"I still ride out in the field and kind of look at them, watch them operate, baling hay, cutting hay, whatever, right out in the pasture and see what the cattle look like," Gladney said. "I'll walk out to the barn, there's a bunch of little chickens out there, see how they're doing."
Bowens started farming on his own in 1976, after first starting out in 1972. In those years, he's seen the challenges of being a farmer, but 2020 would highlight those challenges in intense ways. Despite this, the family remains determined.
"That's not going to stop nothing because God is in the plan," Bowens said.
COVID-19 and the ice storm
February was a particularly challenging month for the Bowens-Gladney family. For three weeks, Gladney and his wife of 43 years, Christine, battled COVID-19 alongside his daughter, Carol, and her husband. All four would recover, but it would slow them down. Odell Bowens was hit particularly hard.
"I had it so bad, I thought I was leaving here. I had started confessing to my wife, you know I thought I was leaving," he said with a laugh. "If it hadn't been for my wife, I really do believe I would have been gone because she took care of everybody."
Even now, he still feels an impact, potentially due to his age, Bowens said. Despite the long recovery, the family had to keep the farm running. Family came in to help keep things moving. However, he still felt stress around how to pay his bills or make loan payments during that time. During certain times of the year, they sell to pay their bills, but at times they couldn't find buyers or people to move them as things shut down.
"We had to suffer the consequences," Bowens said. "You worry about, 'How am I going to make my payment when ain't nothing is rolling?' If the trucks ain't rolling, you can't make no money."
The family experienced a setback during the February ice storm. It flattened their barn, leading to the loss of hay balers, a feed grinder and some tractor tires. Since he didn't have direct insurance for that barn, it will be a loss.
"That's stress because I have to replace that barn back somehow, but I'm going to get it some kind of way," Bowens said.
Bowens didn't apply for aid, so he is still hopeful he might receive assistance eventually. After being told there were no funds available to fix his barn, his grandsons, nephew and he decided to tear it down, with plans to build it back even if he doesn't receive help.
"I'm going to eventually take it one day at a time. I'm going to put it back little by little," Bowens said.
Farming woes
COVID-19 didn't allow farmers to operate normally, Bowens said. Feed stores closed, and supplies became harder to come by. Finding financial aid was also difficult.
Part of the issue was on a local level, said Mississippi Minority Farmer's Alliance Executive Director Carolyn Jones. Many local Farm Service Agencies, a United States Department of Agriculture agency that connects farmers with government assistance programs, shut down. That included Bowens' local agency.
Bowens remembers the inconvenience and alienation of having to ask for assistance by talking to someone through a window or being told funds aren't available or haven't come in yet.
He feels additional pressure as a Black farmer. In Chickasaw County, where Bowens resides, there are 506 farms. Black farmers account for 95, or approximately 19%, of the farms in the county, according to 2017 USDA data, despite Black residents being 45% of the county's population, according to 2019 Census data.
Black farmers have a long tradition but still face barriers to their daily way of life. One factor for Black farmers like Bowens is decades of unfair lending practices, Jones said.
Pigford v. Glickman, a 1999 class action settlement between Black farmers and the USDA, illustrates this. The settlement showed a history of loan discrimination against Black farmers, but those problems continue, Jones said.
"The discrimination with USDA hasn't gone anywhere. We've been dealing with USDA discrimination for Black farmers for over 30 years, and it's not really changing a lot," Jones said. "Not only with lending practices being unfair, they were untimely. A lot of Black farmers that applied for assistance, the loan was provided late or they weren't provided the amount of funding the farmer needed to actually be able to grow."
Bowens faced that reality. While pandemic-related aid and other loans were available, he was uncertain how to access it himself. When he has asked if funds were available in the past, he's been told there aren't any available for him. To get by, he had to borrow money from the bank.
"I believe as Black farmers, it affected us more than anybody," Bowens said. "That puts pressure on Black farmers because we can't operate like we normally would, or like we should. These are the things that cripple us."
It's a familiar pattern. There is a great disparity between the amount of money that goes into Black communities and farmers versus white communities and farmers, "which is why their communities thrive and ours die," Jones said.
Part of the problem is that available resources aren't making it into their community, Jones said. In fiscal year 2020, 37% of USDA direct loan applications from Black famers were approved, the lowest percentage across each race and ethnicity group, according to POLITICO. Black farmers accounted for 1.8% of direct loans accepted, but are 5% of all U.S. farmers, the outlet reported.
In the past, Bowens applied for aid and was told no, whether it's because funds have run out or the money was more needed elsewhere.
"That's what we get as Black farmers; we get excuses," Bowens said. "Other folks get results, but we get excuses."
Continuing through faith
Faith carries Bowens and his family on. Bowens has been at New Zion M.B. Church for 28 years. The pandemic put a damper on church, Bowens said. In the early months and during at least one COVID-19 spike near the summer, the church remained closed to in-person worship. Once vaccinations became available, a high percentage of the church received it and have begun returning.
After his own battle with COVID-19, Bowens is preaching the value of getting the shot and continuing to practice caution.
"We asked God for a cure," Bowens said. "He gave us three choices."
As for farming, the family will carry on. At his age, Gladney takes everything at ease each day.
"I operated about like I'm doing now. I did, out in the hay field, I did do some cutting and raking, hauling," Gladney said.
They're in the process of changing over their cattle crop and, as a whole, are holding steady. Even without COVID-19, farming is often a matter of chance, whether its worrying about how too much rain will impact their hay or seeing if it will pass them by.
"I don't know what it is, but I've got faith it's going to work out," Bowens said. "God's got something good out of it, so I'm looking for the good. I worry about it sometimes because I'm human, but I'm looking for the good."
