USDA's Equity Commission issued a final report Thursday that includes proposed commodity program reforms to address “historical inequities and discrimination” in the way farm subsidies are distributed.
The report also includes recommendations for more equitable delivery of all USDA programs, farmworker access to USDA food and nutrition programs, and increased funding for the Federally Recognized Tribal Extension Programs.
The commission also recommends addressing historical inequities in funding for 1890s institutions and expanding access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Addressing a celebratory crowd at a launch event for the report, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack summed up the report by saying it “is about seeing people, and I mean really seeing people — understanding that each of them has a point of view and a life story that defines who they are, and requires anyone dealing with them to understand and appreciate that.”
The report also is about making USDA’s workforce more diverse, so that when a member of a historically underserved population enters their county office, “they see themselves in the folks at work,” he said.
The report says the way commodity program base acreage is allocated has caused “lasting economic harm to underserved producers.”
The government should consider redistributing base acreage to “address disparities among farmers” and include cropland that was left out of the original allotment, the report says. Improvements that are made to land by leveling, installation of irrigation systems should be taken into consideration, the report says.
The report argues that “admitted discrimination during the critical period (1981-1985) “for determining base acres “likely played a role in certain farmers only being able to secure funding to produce lower yields of lower value crops. Farmers who were privy to loans were able to install irrigation, improve drainage, adopt technology, and make other infrastructure improvements that allowed them to increase yields, diversify crops, and expand acreage.”
The House and Senate Agriculture committees have been under pressure to make more acreage eligible for the Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs, but doing so could significantly increase the cost of the programs unless lawmakers remove base acres that are no longer producing program crops, such as corn, soybeans, rice or cotton. Doing the latter would create political problems for many lawmakers.
The report's proposals for addressing disparities in conservation programs include a recommendation to "increase incentive payments for implementation of climate-resilient practices to ensure limited-resource farmers can participate in cost-share programs." Historically underserved producers should automatically get advance payments under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the report says.
Proposed reforms to Farm Service Agency loan programs include a recommendation to “provide additional flexibility regarding the timing and processing of loans, including the ability to offer an initial statement of eligibility or accept preliminary paperwork before an application is submitted. Additional flexibility regarding loan terms and conditions should be available when structuring financial packages for underserved farmers and ranchers.”
The commission said it “believes that transforming FSA’s culture to a customer service centered approach will lead to increased access to capital for programs and services in a more equitable way.”
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The 85-page report “covers a significant amount of the work of USDA,” mentioning nutrition, farmworkers, and the issue of heirs’ property, among other subjects, Vilsack said.
He also brought up the thorny issue of FSA county committees, which received severe criticism during the commission’s proceedings for not adequately representing the interests of historically underserved populations.
“We’ve appointed minority members to county committees across the U.S.,” Vilsack said. “This report asks us to continue working on that structure to create equity.”
The report recommends giving all current minority advisers the same voting rights and terms as elected members. It also recommends the department "consider a minimum percentage of representation required" that reflects the population served by the committee. "For example, if 10% of the county population consists of minority farmers and ranchers, approximately at a minimum, 10 percent of the county committee representation should consist of voting minority farmers and ranchers reflective of that population."
Some of the other recommendations in the report:
- Create an Office of Small Farms focused on small farms with gross sales under $250,000.
- Institutionalize equity compliance and culture change across all of USDA by appointing a senior official with dedicated staff (career or political) with decision-making authority and access to senior-level officials and the resources needed to serve farmworkers, their families, and the organizations that serve them.
- Address disparities and difficulties with the 1:1 matching requirement for 1890s land grant universities.
- Increase funding and support to expand Cooperative Extension Service programming to marginalized communities through cooperative agreements and more descriptive language within Requests for Applications (RFAs) for competitive funding to facilitate collaboration with minority-serving agricultural colleges and universities.
- Establish a dedicated team within the Office of Procurement and Contracting focused on procurement and supplier diversity, specifically collaborating with the socially and economically disadvantaged agricultural businesses from underserved and underrepresented agricultural communities.
- Transform and adequately fund the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.
- Under existing authorities, conduct periodic system-wide audits to look at equity across USDA’s services.
- Ensure equitable language and culturally competent access to USDA services, including designating an executive-level career staff member to be responsible for Language Access guidance, compliance, and oversight.
Ertharin Cousin, co-chair of the commission and former executive director of the World Food Program, spoke forcefully about the need to continue working to achieve the commission’s and department’s equity goals. Like other speakers, she lauded Vilsack’s commitment to the issue.
But she also said, “It’s a document – we have the responsibility to keep going to make it real.”
Commission co-chair Arturo Rodriguez, former president of United Farm Workers, said he was “filled with hope and confidence that our seat at the table is secure and the needs and concerns of farmworkers will be addressed.”
Wednesday's launch event was significant for Vilsack, who made what he admitted was a mistake in 2010 when he forced Shirley Sherrod, at the time USDA's Georgia state director of rural development, to resign after a video was publicized by a right-wing news site appearing to show Sherrod saying she had declined to help a white farmer.
The video clip was misleading, however. For one thing, Sherrod, who was giving a speech, was discussing an experience she had before she began working for USDA. But more important, she was using the story of her encounter with the white farmer to illustrate the danger of racial stereotypes.
Later in the speech, Sherrod discusses how she ended up helping the white farmer and his wife navigate their financial troubles. That farmer later credited Sherrod with helping save his family’s farm.
But by the time the video’s misleading nature was uncovered, Sherrod had already been fired. Vilsack, who maintained it was his decision to make, apologized to Sherrod and offered her a job, which she did not accept. She accepted his apology, however, and at the event Thursday, was seated in the front row as a proud member of the commission whose report was signed and delivered to Vilsack.
“Pardon me for just calling her out,” Vilsack told the audience. “If there has been any person in my life who has taken the blinders off my eyes, it’s you, Shirley.” She told Agri-Pulse afterward she was proud to work with Vilsack.
After the event at USDA, Sherrod said she joined the commission because it was an “opportunity to make a difference, and I feel we are making that difference, and we have an administration that’s open to that.”
Asked about Vilsack, she said, “We settled our differences years ago now and have moved forward, and I’m proud to be able to work with him.”
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