The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is removing equitable support for the “socially disadvantaged” in all agency programs—a label that was created in the 1990 Farm Bill to identify farmers impacted by racial, ethnic, or gender discrimination. As Capital B notes, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins claimed in a statement that “under President Trump, USDA does not discriminate and single out individual farmers based on race, sex, or political orientation.” Still, the agency did not clarify how the decision will affect programs that currently serve farmers of color, who only make up 4% of the nation’s 3.3 million producers. According to Mother Jones, the outrage from white farmers over targeted relief for Black farmers ignores the reality that 97% of USDA’s $46.2 billion in 2020 agriculture bailouts went to white producers.
Author: Lauryn Bass
Published at: 2025-07-19 22:54:06
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