claim: “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."
evidence: Black farmers who are struggling to retain their land despite racial discrimination and little assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), could find relief in a measure called The Justice for Farmers Act. [...] "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," wrote the Act’s sponsor Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) in a news release. "The Justice for Black Farmers Act will work to correct this historic injustice by addressing and correcting USDA discrimination and taking bold steps to restore the land that has been lost in order to empower a new generation of Black farmers to succeed." [...] The USDA has a long history of racism against Black farmers. A June 2019 report published in The Counter, an online investigative newsroom focused on food issues, documents how the USDA seized land from Black farmers. In the past, a common USDA practice was to foreclose on farms owned by Black people who had filed discrimination complaints against the agency. The Counter details how the USDA would ignore complaints then, allow them to sit unanswered until the statutes of limitations ran out.