Good response from the Dept of Agriculture
After the National Black Farmers Association announced an April 28 rally in front of the USDA to protest a variety of discriminatory USDA policies (particularly in lending practices), Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has acted rapidly. He’s publicly reassured the NBFA that their issues will be addressed by the agency, and effective immediately, the Secretary has granted greater authority to the USDA’s Office of Civil Rights. This will include ensuring that all discrimination complaints are in a single database, time limits and protocols for dealing with discrimination complaints, and ensuring that complaints are uniformly collected. Why is this important? Historically, complaints against USDA don’t go beyond a farmer’s local farm bureau office—a huge problem if you’re in the rural South.
In a presser, Secretary Vilsack also pledged:
- The Agriculture Department will review more than 14,000 civil rights complaints that have been filed against the agency since 2000.
- Create a task force to review a sample of the complaints filed in the last nine years, supported by an independent legal counsel.
- Temporarily suspend foreclosures under the department’s farm loan program to review loans involving possible discriminatory conduct.
