Later today, when the President announces his 2010 budget, which slashes 121 programs and about $17 billion, there’ll be one crucial area where spending will increase. Working with his closest advisers, President Obama is attempting to redress the longstanding civil rights grievances of black American farmers, by proposing a $1.25 billion deal to settle the ‘Pigford Claims,” a longstanding discrimination against USDA.
The funding could benefit as many as 80,000 black farmers, who have experienced decades of unconscionable behaviour from USDA employees, in the form of denied services and racially biased lending practices. Pigford has been an emotional battle spanning multiple administrations and Ag secretary tenures, and the budget announcement is due to years of work by a bipartisan group of farmers, lawyers, and non-profit Ag and justice groups, led by Dr. John W. Boyd, Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) (above). The President inherited the issue when he took office, and both he and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack pledged to help. The Congressional Black Caucus has been working on the issue too.
But today’s settlement offer almost didn’t happen. [READ ON]
For still more, see Obama Foodorama here, here, here, here and here. I’ve seen no other blog, print or web publication cover it. Save for this the one blog post, from Facing South (quoting AP), last June. The legislation at that time included a paltry $100 million.