[asia-apec 1441] JOIN RALLY FOR BLACK FARMERS

[Anuradha Mittal]

		**Congressional Representatives Support Family Farmers**

 Join Over 500 Black Farmers and Small Family Farmers at the Rally 
 USDA, 1400 Independence Avenue, Washington, DC, May 8, 2000, 10:00 am

Co-Sponsored by Food First/ The Institute for Food and Development 
Policy & the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA)


Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Black 
Congressional Caucus, including Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Barbara Lee 
(D-CA), Earl Hilliard (D-AL) and Maxine Waters (D-CA), will join over 
500 Black farmers and small family farmers from around the country in 
front of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on May 8, to 
protest decades of on-going discrimination by the agency and to demand 
support for America's small family farmers. This rally, endorsed by over 
60 groups follows the March 6 and March 20, 2000, arrests of 18 Black 
farmers at the USDA offices, when they tried to meet with the Secretary 
of Agriculture, Dan Glickman.

The Rally for Black Family Farmers and the Family Farm Movement is 
co-sponsored by Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy and 
the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA).

In January 1999, lawyers representing Black farmers in a class-action 
suit against the USDA (Timothy Pigford, et al. v. Glickman) signed a 
consent agreement compensating each farmer with $50,000 for 
discrimination suffered in the distribution of loans and disaster relief 
 by the USDA between the years 1981 and 1996. Now the USDA is stalling 
in paying the compensation.

According to Gary Grant, President of the BFAA, "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."

The situation of Black farmers in the U.S. is very serious. In 1920, 
925,000 farmers were African Americans. In 1999, less than 18,000 
African American farmers remained. In 1990 a House of Representatives 
committee found that Black owned farms were going out of business at a 
rate five times that of white farmers, and that Black farmers, who 
represented less than 1% of U.S. farmers, were on the verge of 
extinction. Black farmers point to USDA discrimination as a major 
contributing factor in their declining numbers. To add to their woes, 
the Reagan administration eliminated the USDA's civil rights complaint 
division in 1983. That ended any federal investigation of complaints 
filed by minority farmers.

According to Anuradha Mittal, Policy Director of Food First, "Black 
farmers have been the proverbial "canary in the mineshaft" of American 
agriculture. Everything that happened to them, happened to all family 
farmers later. Last year American taxpayers paid a record $22 billion in 
farm support payments, which went overwhelmingly to the largest and 
wealthiest 25% of American farms. That’s a lot to pay for a system that 
drives family farmers off the land, destroys rural America, and erodes 
our soil, while subsidizing Cargill and ADM."

The rally on May 8 will inform the nation and the world of violations of 
the basic human rights of Black farmers and small family farmers by the 
USDA and the US Justice Department, as they continue to cause undue and 
unnecessary anguish for Black farmers and small family farmers. The 
rally is calling for:

o Fulfillment of the consent decree;
o Return of foreclosed lands to the Black farmers;
o Access to credit without discrimination in the future for all family 
farmers;
o Support for outreach, technical assistance and funding of education;
o Democratization of the USDA/Farm Services Agency;
o Full implementation of the Civil Rights Action team (CRAT) and 
National Small Farm Commission Recommendations;
o A Farm Bill to strengthen America's family farmers.

For more information, please contact Anuradha Mittal at 510-654-4400 or 
510-684-5993 (cell phone). A background report on the situation of Black 
farmers in the US, can be found at: 
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2000/w00v6n1.html.


May 8th Rally Endorsers:

(Farm and Agriculture Groups)
African American Food Association, Los Angeles, CA
Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation (ALFDC), Brinkley, AR 
Black Farmers of Tennessee, TN
California Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, CA
Center for Rural Affairs, Walthill, ME 
Community Food Security Coalition, Venice, CA
Community Food Security Project, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
Community Harvest, Washington, DC
Coordinating Council of Black Farm Groups, Atlanta, GA
Family Farmers Defenders Inc., MO
Farm Workers Support Committee, Berkeley, CA
Federation of Southern Cooperatives, AL 
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis, MN 
Kentucky Minority Farmers Association, KY
Land Loss Prevention Project, Durham, NC
National Family Farm Coalition, Washington, DC
Rural  Vermont, Montpelier, VT

(Other Endorsers)

AFL-CIO
African American Environmental Justice Action Network, Atlanta, GA
Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC
Birmingham Human Rights Project, Birmingham, AL
Black Social Workers of the Triangle, Chapel Hill, NC
Campaign for Labor Rights, Eugene, OR 
Center for Community Change, Washington, DC
Center for Economic Justice, Washington, DC 
Center for Poverty Solutions, Baltimore, MD
Common Counsel, Oakland, CA
Community Change, Inc, Boston, MA
Concerned Citizens of Tillery, Tillery, NC
Downtown Cluster of Churches, Washington, DC
Earth Rights Institute, Scotland, PA
Grassroots International, Jamaica Plain, MA
Grassroots Policy Project, Washington, DC 
Green Party of Tennessee, TN
Green Party of Texas, TX
Harlem Reclamation Development Corporation, New York, NY
Human Rights Action Service, St. Louis, MO 
Million Family March, Washington, DC
National Association for Socially Responsible Organizations, 
Washington,DC  
National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco-Bay Area Chapter, CA
Oakland Tenants Union, Oakland, CA
Organic Consumers Association, Little Marais, MN 
Payday Men's Network
Peninsula Peace & Justice Center (PPJC ), Palo Alto, CA 
Philippine Peasant Support Network (PESANTE) - USA
Pine Island Organics, Pineland, FL
Progressive Alliance of Alameda County, Oakland & Berkeley, CA
Progressive Challenge, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC 
Richard Levins, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
South Alabama Rural Business Enterprise, Inc.
Southern Organizing Committee, Atlanta, GA
Texas Landowners Association, Houston, TX 
The Edmonds Institute, Edmonds, WA 
The International Black Women for Wages for Housework
The International Wages for Housework Campaign
The National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, Inc, Washington, DC 
The Organization for Black Struggle, St. Louis, MO
The Southwest Florida Organizing Committee for Global Justice, Tampa, FL
The St. Louis Coalition for Human Rights, St. Louis, MO 
U.S. Program of Oxfam, Boston, MA
West Tennessee Farmers, TN 
WHY (World Hunger Year), New York, NY
Join the fight against hunger. For more information contact foodfirst at foodfirst.org.
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