evidence: This post was updated 2 p.m. Feb. 3 to include this correction: An earlier version of this report misstated the connection that Lawrence Lucas, head of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, has to farming. Lucas grew up in a Black farm family. [...] Black farmers also say that at the USDA under Vilsack, agricultural census data was distorted to falsely show that there was a boom in the number of Black farmers. [...] "When it comes to farming and agriculture, we know that there is a direct connection between discriminatory policies within the USDA and the enormous land loss we have seen among Black farmers over the past century."