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What hole have you been living in Mr. Groth? Do some research. Check out history. You won’t have much difficulty finding discriminatory practices in execution of policies for farmers of color.
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Here is my take. I am a white female farmer and I applied for a conservation contract exactly 1 year ago. For the first three months the FSA said they had never heard of that program. I downloaded an application after extensive research and then for the next 4 months the FSA said they didn’t know how to implement that program. They did this because the Debt for Nature Program would have reduced my debt to the USDA by 33%, approximately $100,000! The FSA agent actually walked away one time mumbling “everybody wants to be a rich farmer”.
Everyone that works at the local FSA offices is a farmer or relative of a farmer, or has loans from the FSA. When you walk in there, you are competition for them. So minority and poor white people are discriminated against. P.S.- after I became delinquent on my land loan, the FSA threw out my conservation contract application and said that because I was delinquent, that I had to fill out a whole new application! Put that in your pipe mr Vilsack.
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Sorry but Mr Vilsack is a politician with a solution looking for a problem. USDA programs have not been discriminatory and have been applied fairly without regard to race or gender. What crazy times these are. What is next? Lower tax rates for those who claim they have been disadvantaged? Vouchers to buy equipment at lower prices? Mandatory free seed from DeKalb and Pioneer? Capitalism isn’t perfect, but blatant discrimination in 2021 is not the answer.