'We’re facing extinction': Minority farmers sue government over scrapped plan to give $5B in aid

On Wednesday, a number of farmers of color stood outside of the U.S. Capitol demanding their 40 acres and a mule. The group, which included prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, announced that they’re filing a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. government, alleging that it breached its contract with socially disadvantaged farmers under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Originally, under the law passed last year, the federal government said they would allocate 5 billion dollars to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who are Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan native, Asian American or Pacific Islander. Specifically, Section 1005 of the legislation stated: “The Secretary shall provide a payment in an amount up to 120 percent of the outstanding indebtedness of each socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as of January 1, 2021.”

John Boyd Jr., who has been a farmer for over 40 years, said Wednesday that the promises made in the American Rescue Plan Act gave farmers of color hope and finally addressed the racial injustices Black farmers have experienced for decades.

But when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) into law in August, the legislation repealed Section 1005 of the ARPA, directly affecting farmers of color.

In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture said they were prepared to provide funding to farmers of color under the American Rescue Plan Act, but court challenges to the program prevented the government from providing the payments.

“USDA strongly supported the ARPA Section 1005 program and was ready to make payments to direct-loan borrowers. However, the $5 billion that was intended to help farmers was frozen by three nationwide injunctions that prevented USDA from getting payments out the door. The government vigorously defended this program in the courts but because of these injunctions, the $5 billion provided in ARPA remained frozen. This litigation would likely have not been resolved for years,” Marissa Perry, Department of Agriculture press secretary, told Yahoo News.

With a mule in hand on Wednesday Boyd said, “This fight is about historical losses for black farmers. I got my mule. I’m looking for my 40 acres.” The term “40 acres and a mule” came about after the Civil War when former slaves were promised land that majority of them never received.

Now farmers of color say history is repeating itself. “They went from being able to get money where they were going to own their farm and pay off their taxes, to the Inflation Reduction Act where now they’re going to have additional interest, additional fees and they’re going to owe money. That does not add up, America,” Crump said at the press conference.

The American Rescue Plan had initially provided nearly 5 billion for socially disadvantaged farmers to completely pay off their USDA loans. The legislation also provided an additional 20% of the loan to cover taxes.

In response, midwestern white farmers filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that ARPA was discriminatory because they couldn’t participate in it. The plaintiffs of the suit included farmers from Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Ohio, according to ABC News.

“Were [the] plaintiffs eligible for the loan forgiveness benefit, they would have the opportunity to make additional investments in their property, expand their farms, purchase equipment and supplies, and otherwise support their families and local communities,” the lawsuit said. “Because [the] plaintiffs are ineligible to even apply for the program solely due to their race, they have been denied the equal protection of the law and therefore suffered harm.”

As a result, farmers of color never received the funds from the ARPA, and the Inflation Reduction Act allows all races that can prove that they’ve faced discrimination to receive funding. The Department of Agriculture says the new legislation is more effective than the ARPA.

“The Inflation Reduction Act — thanks to the leadership of Sens. Booker, Warnock, Stabenow, Manchin, and Schumer — moved to repeal those provisions and crafted something new. Congress provided $3.1 billion that will allow USDA to be able to work with distressed borrowers to provide help with their farm debts in new and more effective ways to help keep borrowers as much as possible stay on the land, stay in agriculture, and maintain eligibility for future assistance.”

“Additionally, for those farmers that have suffered discrimination by the USDA farm loan programs, Congress allocated $2.2 billion to provide additional financial assistance. We are moving aggressively to implement these provisions,” Perry explained.

While farmers of color have been disadvantaged for decades, the new debt relief does not solely focus on Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan native, Asian American and Pacific Islander farmers.

“They believed the U.S. government’s promises. They took Congress and the administration at their word, expecting that the government would pay off their debt, as the USDA promised in writing. Instead, it was 40 acres and a mule all over again, 150 years later — broken promises that doomed generations of Black farmers to become sharecroppers and robbed Black families of billions in intergenerational wealth,” Crump said.

Farmers at the press conference on Wednesday said they were relying on the funds from the ARPA to avoid the foreclosure of their land. Boyd said he owns a 1,500-acre farm and grows soybeans, corn, wheat, hemp and other produce.

The number of Black farmers has declined steeply since 1920, when farmers of color comprised more than 14 percent of farmers in the U.S.; now there is only 1.4 percent, according to data analysis by the consulting firm McKinsey. The firm also found that there are multiple factors that have contributed to the decline of Black-owned farms, including federal programs and policies excluding Blacks from land purchases.

The lack of immediate aid has left minority farmers angry and frustrated and they say help is needed urgently. “It hurts me to say that I stand here today, with my other fellow farmers facing extinction. We’re facing extinction, while Congress and other political leaders play games with our lives,” Boyd said.