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Judge stops USDA payments, loan forgiveness for farmers of color

A court has ordered USDA and the Biden administration not to move forward with preferential payments to Black farmers and other farmers of color.

Judge William Griesbach in Wisconsin’s Eastern District U.S. District Court issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack preventing USDA from forgiving any farm loans or paying 20% of those loans back to the farmers until the court rules on a request for an injunction.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is representing a dozen farmers in nine states including Minnesota, South Dakota, Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Oregon, and Kentucky saying the Biden administration’s plan discriminates against white farmers.

The loan forgiveness and refunds are part of Section 1005 of Biden’s American Rescue Act legislation.  USDA had announced payments to farmers of color would begin this month.

  • You are kidding right!!! They are jealous and feel neglected due to payments to black farmers. They had everything given to them for decades,I had to watch my grandfather jump thru hoops and discriminated against in the lily white offices,that was supposed to be fair to all farmers regardless of the color of there skin.
    Give the Black farmer his due!!!!

    • Not sure how you can make those comments when you have not sat in on others meetings in those same offices. I watched my parents show the loan officer an extremely detailed business plan to get enough money to buy seed. If they failed, they were done farming. They were not allowed to even buy groceries unless they spoke to the loan officer first. Please stop thinking the white farmer gotten everything and only farmers of other races have had to jump through hoops. All farmers have had to jump through hoops. That’s why farmers from all states stick together and help each other in time of need – i.e. hay is shipped from one state to another during droughts.

  • I’m a white farmer that started with absolutely nothing. I had to get a 100% financed loan from FSA to start and I’ll tell you I had a lot of hoops to jump through and even after they gave me a little loan they still controlled my every move for several years. It would take at least three to four months to get through all the hoops to get a little money even for a break down. I sure don’t know what your talking about when you say we got everything gave to us because I sure didn’t. I think farming and getting credit for farming is hard no matter your skin color.

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