[asia-apec 1421] Rally for Black Farmers

[Anuradha Mittal]

Please Endorse the Rally for Black Farmers; Plan to Attend; and make a 
tax deductible contribution to bus farmers from around the country to 
the doorstep of the USDA!!!

SEND IN YOUR ENDORSEMENTS TO foodfirst at foodfirst.org


STRUGGLE FOR LAND & JUSTICE

Join the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA)
and Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy

May 8, 2000 at 10 a.m.
United States Department of Agriculture
Independence Avenue
Washington, DC.


  	USDA OFFICIALS ADMIT TO DECADES OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION FINDS THE POPULATION OF BLACK FAMILY  
FARMERS FALLING FIVE TIMES FASTER THAN WHITE FARMERS AND ON THE VERGE OF 
EXTINCTION

LOANS NOT APPROVED, MONEY NOT DISTRIBUTED, BLACK FAMILY FARMERS 
MISTREATED, COMPLAINTS NOT HEARD


   Now You Can HELP
	
MAKE THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ACCOUNTABLE

	STAND-UP AGAINST RACISM

	UPHOLD  THE  RIGHT OF BLACK FARMERS TO THEIR LAND

	STAND FOR  JUSTICE ––– DEMAND IT!

PLAN TO ATTEND AND MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO: 
BFAA, P.O. Box 61, Tillery, NC 27887

Contributions will be used to bus farmers & supporters from around the 
country to the doorstep of the USDA

Contact BFAA at 252-826-2800 or Food First at 510-654-4400
You can also e-mail  at tillery at aol.com or foodfirst at foodfirst.org




CALL TO ACTION

SUPPORT BLACK FAMILY FARMERS AND THE FAMILY FARM MOVEMENT
JOIN BFFA & FOOD FIRST 
MAY 8, 2000,WASHINGTON, DC 

"Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, 
justice and equality."													- Malcolm X

We urge you to join black family farmers on May 8, 2000, on the steps of 
the USDA offices in Washington, DC to protest ongoing racial 
discrimination and economic injustice and to assert their equal human 
right to work as farmers. This rally organized by the Black Farmers and 
Agriculturalists Association (BFAA) and Food First/ Institute for Food 
and Development Policy will be an opportunity to let Secretary of 
Agriculture, Dan Glickman, and the USDA know that black family farmers 
are in a fight for their very lives.

Black Farmers Arrested At USDA, Washington, DC
March 6, 2000, eleven black farmers, eldest being 72 years old
March 20 - 7 more black farmers arrested, the eldest was a 73 year old 
black woman farmer
These 18 farmers represent the 18,000 Black Family Farmers left in the 
country

Please send $10 and help us reach the $18,000 we need to bring the fight 
to the doorstep of the USDA

What are the black farmers fighting for?
The black farmers wanted to ask the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Dan 
Glickman, "Why won't you live up to the provisions of the Consent 
Decree?"  The Decree is the result of an out-of-court settlement of a 
lawsuit against USDA, which involves compensation to individual black 
farmers for past discrimination by the USDA and its agents. "In 1920, 
925,000 farmers were African American. A House of Representatives 
committee found in 1990 that black owned farms were going out of 
business at a rate five times that of white farmers, and that black 
farmers, who now represent less than 1% of U.S. farmers, were on the 
verge of extinction. In 1999 less than 18,000 African American farmers 
remained. This decline has been blamed on admitted racist and 
prejudicial treatment in lending policies of the USDA. 

"The Consent Decree is no panacea for what has happened to us, but the 
terrorism with which the Decree is being implemented, with over 40% of 
farmers already rejected, it will lead to sure death of black family 
farmers in this nation," said Gary R. Grant, President of BFAA. "The 
nation and the world need to know of the human rights violations of the 
USDA and the US Justice Department as they continue to cause undue and 
unnecessary anguish for black family farmers. "  

Join the black family farmers in their demand for their compensation, 
their land, and USDA reorganization. We demand political equality and 
economic justice; respect for the Economic Human Rights of America's 
black family farmers; and restoration of the right of the black family 
farmer to be stewards of the land, and keepers of their destiny.

Send in your tax-deductible contribution to: BFAA
							P.O. Box 61
							Tillery, NC 27887.

For information contact Food First at 510-654-4400 or the Black Farmers 
and Agriculturalists Association at 252-826-2800.
Join the fight against hunger. For more information contact foodfirst at foodfirst.org.
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