WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some smallscale and minority farmers are fighting for transparency in government subsidy programs.

 

The National Black Farmers Assoc. (NBFA) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) sent a letter to all members of Congress calling on leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees to increase transparency in federal farm subsidy programs.

 While laws are currently in place to prevent disclosing the identities of most farm subsidy recipients, the NBFA and EWG want Congress to investigate whether crop insurance subsidies have expanded the subsidy gap between white and black farmers.

 

“Many people don’t understand that farm subsidies are grants; it’s not a loan. You don’t have to pay it back,” said John Boyd, founder and president of the NBFA. “We have farmers getting $1 million-plus a year.”

  

He said the subsidy programs have been a topic of conversation within the NBFA membership for about 20 years. The EWG analyzed USDA data, and stated the percentages between black farmers and white farmers were awful. Boyd said the problem is not just apparent to black farmers.

 

All minority farmers, including women, and small-scale farmers with fewer than 100 acres get noticeably less in subsidies than white farmers with more than 1,000 acres. (Anything between 100-1,000 acres is considered a medium-sized farm.)

 

“We pointed out a lot of fraud in the crop insurance program. The bigger the farmer, the more help they receive from the federal government. Smaller farmers get less,” he alleged.

 In addition to getting less in disaster payments and insurance payments, small-scale farmers have to pay premiums upfront, while large-scale farmers pay insurance premiums in the fall after the harvest, he said.

 

Boyd thinks the problem is a lack of awareness. The USDA has the information about programs and deadlines on its website, but many smaller farmers don’t have the time or resources to check the site until the deadlines are passed. He thinks people on committees or in local governments hear about the program and share that information with the largest farmers they know directly.

 

“We think there needs to be more outreach to small-scale farmers and black farmers,” he explained. “If we have the same soil, same landscape, same climate ... and you’re receiving $1 million in farm subsidies and I’m not getting anything, it’s going to be very hard for me to compete with you.”

 

Most Americans don’t realize that subsidies don’t have to be paid back. They don’t complain or ask where the funds have gone.

 

“It’s supposed to be a hand-up for farmers, not trying to put us out of business,” Boyd said. “I would like to see the government have a national outreach program ... to all farmers.”

He wants all government programs to be operated fairly, and said the only way to do that is to see where the money is going.

The programs are the problem, he said, and the people who administer these programs are the problem.

“In light of recent revelations that someone like Richard Spencer (a prominent white nationalist speaker) is receiving farm subsidies (according to The Center for Investigative Reporting, his family was paid for Louisiana cotton and corn acres), Congress needs to shine a light on these programs,” said Ken Cook, co-founder and president of EWG.

“There are no limits and no transparency requirements for crop insurance subsidies. But that clearly needs to change when black farmers who have worked the land for decades are largely ignored, and individuals like Richard Spencer reap millions.”