INSANITY JUSTICE’ BILL WOULD TRANSFER UP TO 32 MILLION ACRES TO BLACK FARMERS

Marie

Veteran Member
‘Justice’ bill would transfer up to 32 million acres to Black farmers
11/20/2020
The sun sets behind grain bins on a farm.
Photography: Tatsiana502, iStockphoto.com
Black-owned farmland could expand sevenfold under a bill filed by three Democratic senators on Thursday to reverse decades of discriminatory practices by the Agriculture Department, sometimes called “the last plantation.” The Justice for Black Farmers Act would enable Black farmers to acquire up to 160 acres apiece at no charge through a USDA system of land grants.

Under the bill, an Equity Commission would study the legacy of discrimination at the USDA and suggest reforms that could reach the farmer-elected county committees that help guide operations at local USDA offices. An independent board would hear appeals of civil rights complaints decided by USDA officials.

At their peak, in 1920, there were 925,708 Black farmers, accounting for 17%, or about one-sixth, of U.S. farmers. A century later, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, there were 35,470 farms with Black producers — just 1.7% of the U.S. total. The government agreed in the so-called Pigford settlements of 1999 and 2010 to compensate Black farmers who were harmed by discriminatory practices, such as the denial of USDA loans and slow handling of civil rights complaints.

“When it comes to farming and agriculture, we know that there is a direct connection between discriminatory practices within the USDA and the enormous land loss we have seen among Black farmers in the past century,” said Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, the lead sponsor of the bill. He said the bill “would enact reforms within the USDA to finally end discrimination within that agency, protect the remaining Black farmers from losing their land, and provide land grants to create a new generation of Black farmers and begin to restore the land base that has been lost by Black farmers due to outrageous discrimination over past decades.”

Also sponsoring the bill were Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. The current session of Congress is scheduled to end in mid- to late December, so the bill’s immediate prospects are limited.

Under the bill, up to 32 million acres would move to Black ownership over a decade — nearly seven times the 4.7 million acres now in Black farms. A new USDA agency, the Equitable Land Access Service, would administer the program. The USDA would buy land from willing sellers at fair market value for use in the program. Up to 20,000 grants of 160 acres would be made annually through 2030. Recipients would be new or experienced Black farmers. Beginning farmers would be required to complete a training program.

The legislation would increase funding to $50 million a year for a USDA relending program to resolve the “heirs property” issue of land passed from one generation of a family to another without a clear title.

“The Justice for Black Farmers Act is the most ambitious legislative proposal ever developed to address historic and ongoing discrimination against Black farmers,” said John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, and Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, two of the six dozen local and national groups that endorsed the bill. “Black farmers have been systemically denied access to land, subsidies, loans, and other critical tools through government and private discrimination, and the institutional racism that has driven Black land loss is being reinforced through the USDA’s broken policies.”

Black-owned farms are, on average, less than one-third the size of the average U.S. farm, and their net cash farm income is one-twelfth the national average, according to the latest Census of Agriculture. Whites make up 97% of all producers.

In a report about the Pigford settlements, the Congressional Research Service said Black farmers had complained for many years “that they were not receiving fair treatment when they applied to local county committees (which make the decisions) for farm loans or assistance.”

These farmers, the CRS report said, “alleged they were being denied USDA farm loans or forced to wait longer for loan approval than were nonminority farmers. Many Black farmers contended that they were facing foreclosure and financial ruin because the USDA denied them timely loans and debt restructuring.” Nor was the USDA responsive to complaints of discrimination. “A huge agency backlog of unresolved complaints began to build after the USDA’s Civil Rights Office was closed in 1983,” said the report.

A number of other USDA reforms are included in the proposed legislation. Among them are a provision to ban packer ownership of cattle and pigs; a requirement that meatpackers buy half of their cattle and hogs on the cash market; the prohibition of so-called tournament systems to decide payments by processors to poultry producers; a requirement for transparency in compensation of contract poultry growers; and language saying farmers do not have to prove industry-wide harm when they file a complaint of unfair treatment by a processor.

A summary of the Justice for Black Farmers Act is available here.

The text of the bill is available here.

‘Justice’ bill would transfer up to 32 million acres to Black farmers
 

Meadowlark

Has No Life - Lives on TB
The bill offers no explanation as to whose or what lands are going to be redistribution. Is it public lands, or private lands? The largest land owner west of the mississippi is the federal government. What about hispanics, native americans or even poor white people?
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
As a native american my opinion on the matter, though it doesn't truly count, is oh hell ****ing no! Give me my ancestors land back before you give it to black farmers. Blacks want farmland they can go back to Africa and get themselves some farmland.

THIS IS NATIVE LAND, NOT NEGROS LAND!!!
There, I said it! Now I think I'll go get me some bourbon and tuck in and finish watching the 25th anniversary of Riverdance.
 

Mr.Smith

Isa:54:16: Behold, I have created the smith
The bill offers no explanation as to whose or what lands are going to be redistribution. Is it public lands, or private lands? The largest land owner west of the mississippi is the federal government. What about hispanics, native americans or even poor white people?
From the OP:
The USDA would buy land from willing sellers at fair market value for use in the program.
 

ktrapper

Veteran Member
I know a guy that lives in South Africa that I worked with for a while on the North Slope. Me being from the Deep South we had some very interesting conversations. The capacity to efficiently conduct business and to farm is just not in the darker people’s of South Africa. I would surmise that would be the case here as well. The motivation to succeed and successful just don’t seem to be there in most of that part of the population. I am not saying it’s not possible, there are exceptions, but they be few.. He told me that 90% of the farms they took over from the whites went to ruin in a couple years even though they had everything needed to be successful. I think the only way they would make it here is with lots of government handouts. Heck, even white farmers here these days can hardly survive without gov subsidies.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
The bill offers no explanation as to whose or what lands are going to be redistribution. Is it public lands, or private lands? The largest land owner west of the mississippi is the federal government. What about hispanics, native americans or even poor white people?

It'll be federal, state, and native american lands, and land from some of the larger cattle ranchers.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
I know a guy that lives in South Africa that I worked with for a while on the North Slope. Me being from the Deep South we had some very interesting conversations. The capacity to efficiently conduct business and to farm is just not in the darker people’s of South Africa. I would surmise that would be the case here as well. The motivation to succeed and successful just don’t seem to be there in most of that part of the population. I am not saying it’s not possible, there are exceptions, but they be few.. He told me that 90% of the farms they took over from the whites went to ruin in a couple years even though they had everything needed to be successful. I think the only way they would make it here is with lots of government handouts. Heck, even white farmers here these days can hardly survive without gov subsidies.

most of the black farmers here in Iowa and also in the south raise vegetables not row crops. And that's fine, someone has to raise cabbages, tomatoes, etc.
 

Mr.Smith

Isa:54:16: Behold, I have created the smith
160 acres hereabouts of level productive row crop land could be leased any day of the week for $200 an acre annual.
Thats $32,000 in rent annual without lifting a finger.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
160 acres hereabouts of level productive row crop land could be leased any day of the week for $200 an acre annual.
Thats $32,000 in rent annual without lifting a finger.

depending on the soil quality one couple possibly get even more than $200 an acre.
 

cleobc

Veteran Member
There was a debacle in the 1930s where they opened what should be ranch land to homesteading farmers. Thousands of farmers starved out on 160 acres of land that won't grow enough of anything to support a family. That's why it's ranch land. It is redistribution of wealth and part of the scheme to undermine our ability to feed ourselves. And Publius is right, we already handed out millions of dollars to "black farmers" who had never set foot on farm land. Booker and the rest just search history for something to be angry about to make their career.
 

DryCreek

Veteran Member
The bill offers no explanation as to whose or what lands are going to be redistribution. Is it public lands, or private lands? The largest land owner west of the mississippi is the federal government. What about hispanics, native americans or even poor white people?
It stated pretty clearly in there that the USDA would purchase land, from willing sellers, at fair market values.
I don't have a problem with that part. It seems to be keeping productive land, in production. That is an absolute must going forward. I knew black farmers growing up. They were pretty savvy, and hard workers too. They were pretty adept at raising hogs and grain (East Texas, Georgia).
It also looks like they have to prove that the land is used for production, and new farmers will have to attend the same type of continuing education that I have to in order to maintain my pesticide applicators license here in Texas.
 

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
And then comes FAMINE, like it did every time this was tried in Africa!
These commie leaders don’t know what they want, or how to get it sustainably and successfully!
They want to destroy Capitalism at the same time they think giving the ignorant, lazy poor 160 Acres of farm land, supposedly the tools to become the successful Capitalists they want to destroy, will cure their poverty!

It is the same as if Democrat simpletons swearing , “IMAGINE, if you just gave ALL the homeless, mentally ill, addicts and drunks shi****g in the streets a gift of electrician’s, plumber’s or carpenters TOOLS they would lift themselves up to mIddle class and the problem and injustice would be solved!!

IT IS ASININE, RIDICULOUS, AND UTTERLY prepubescent child level reasoning, also called STUPID, when espoused by only apparent adults.

IT IS THE SAME PRINCIPLE, and it does NOT work!
What a typical, DEMOCRAT SIMPLETON’s, NEVER WORKING answer!
 

Thunderbird

Veteran Member
The farmers in my area have millions of dollars of investment and during harvesting and planting season work for days with out sleep. My BIL survived for years on 4 hours of sleep a day running a dairy operation. Most retire with poor health and permanent injuries. Takes a very special person to hack it.
 

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________
The bill offers no explanation as to whose or what lands are going to be redistribution. Is it public lands, or private lands? The largest land owner west of the mississippi is the federal government. What about hispanics, native americans or even poor white people?

Just another type of unfunded mandate. Sure we'll give you that 160 acres ... after we come up with some acreage that we can actually give you. But if you want that acreage you are going to have to pay higher taxes so we can afford to buy that 160 acres that we give you for free.

Circular jerk off per usual in the Dem party.
 

The Mountain

Here since the beginning
_______________
So it's land purchased from "willing sellers" at allegedly fair market value, and then handed out as a grant to black farmers, either experienced or new but allegedly trained. No mention of the equipment necessary to actually farm that land, presumably that will be supplied through subsidized loans or similar disguised handouts. Also not mentioned is whether or not the land comes with a house of any kind. Not likely to be many takers for a hundred acres of empty unimproved crop land.

However, is there really a pent-up group of blacks who are eager to become farmers?

And, as noted, how many are actually capable of being productive?

I foresee thousands of acres going fallow (not necessarily a bad thing), with a slight drop in crop production. Many supposed first-timers will simply resell the land as soon as they can, likely for far less than market, just to grab the cash. Others will ruin the soil through improper planting and use of chemicals.

To do this right, the gov would have to impose restrictions on the grant that the land must be farmed or it goes back to the gov to be re-granted, and a clause that the land cannot be sold for some number of years. But because that would presumably be raciss somehow, they will leave all kinds of loopholes so the blacks can "git dat green" to waste on cheap liquor, drugs, and materialistic status symbols like luxury vehicles, overpriced sneakers and tvs.
 

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
If the Intended recipients of this land are already black farmers, hard workers, willing to learn, THEY ARE NOT PART OF THE “PROBLEM POPULATION OF lawless, “poor“, “URBAN BLACKS“ that the bill implies and claims it it is intended to, and will help!

Law abiding, hard working, willing to learn, Blacks ALREADY ARE MIDDLE CLASS, living in the Comfortable, safe, mostly white suburbs With their families, and their real problems are those of the white middle class, not Urban blacks!
 
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