Think tank champions black farmers fighting USDA

JACKSON, Miss. (AP)--An influential Washington, D.C. think tank released a research report accusing the U.S. Department of Agriculture of willfully blocking almost 64,000 black farmers from settlements from a 1999 racial discrimination lawsuit.

The Environmental Working Group--a green dream team of computer programmers, policy experts and engineers--examined thousands of court transcripts, petitions and records from Pigford vs. Glickman, a class action suit that joined 22,000 black farmers nationwide. The farmers claimed that USDA discriminated against black loan applicants.

The farmers won settlements of $50,000 each five years ago. The farmers would present their claims to a USDA adjudicator. But collecting their money has proved almost futile, said EWG legal counsel Arianne Callender.

"This settlement is a complete failure," she said.

Mississippi and Alabama are home to most African American farmers. The Delta Farm Press obtained USDA records via Freedom of Information Act requests in 2002.

In Mississippi, 4,201 black farmers went to the adjudicator; 1,739 were denied and 2,358 got their $50,000. Of Alabama's 4,253 applicants, almost 2,600 have gotten their $50,000 checks.

EWG's report said that the USDA, which has a $36 billion budget, contracted the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Division to fight the farmers' claims.

"Government lawyers spent 56,000 hours challenging 129 farmers' claims," Callender said. "That cost the taxpayers $12 million as of the year 2002."

Black farmers were represented by pro bono lawyers who faced USDA's "frivolous motions, delay, aggressive litigation--contentious litigation at its worst", the EWG report said.

The EWG also accused the USDA of deliberately concealing data from farmers who wanted to appeal rulings.

As of this May, 13, 300 black farmers have been paid $825 million in cash claims and debt forgiveness. The EWG urged Congress to order the USDA to give 8,562 more farmers each a $50,000 settlement and re-evaluate the claims of 64,000 others who missed the 1999 deadline.

The USDA called a Monday teleconference in response to EWG's report. Farm Security Agency spokeswoman Carolyn Cooksey said that the government never agreed to pay a set amount to settle the case. Claimants must still proved to an adjudicator that the USDA discriminated against them.

The melee does not surprise National Black Farmers Association president Gary Grant.

"The USDA spent more money to prevent farmers from getting their settlements than the original settlement would have cost,"Grant said.

His parents lost their North Carolina farm after they had been denied loans.

"USDA field agents act like a racist good ol' boys network when it comes to loans," he said.

Black South Carolina farmer Leroy McCray collided with the USDA in the early 1990's. He and his brother owned an 800-acre poultry farm inherited from their parents.

"We wanted to go after a government contract to supply chicken to a military base," McCray said.

The brothers decided to buy a chicken processing plant that would help them get the freshest chicken onto soldiers plates.

The McCrays needed a $2 million loan to buy the plant. They sweated out a business plan.

"Then we spent a good bit of money to have a graphics firm design the presentation we made to USDA in Washington, D.C.," McCray said. "The loan was approved. But when I went to the USDA office in South Carolina, the official said there were no funds for farmers in my area."

White farmers in the area did receive multimillion dollar loans. McCray got a $50,000 settlement.

Other black farmers remain stuck in USDA red tape. National Black Farmers Association members rode mules through icy rain to protest at the Capitol last November. And the USDA acknowledged that the process is slow as sludge.

Grant wonders if that is by design.

"I'm not sure the USDA wants small farmers to exist; they want giant corporate farms," Grant said.

But, small farmers are not going quietly. Hispanic farmers are now asking the federal court to give them class action status against the USDA.