Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

Owen

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2232, 23 May 21

Racist Debt Relief Program for Farmers Increases Racial Divisions

What a shame. Notice how the debt relief wasn’t even targeted at FOCs (Farmers of Color) who were somehow discriminated against. It was just sent to FOCs under the assumption that they had suffered from some sort of discrimination. The federal government is back in the business of racial discrimination.

LaGRANGE, Mo. — Shade Lewis had just come in from feeding his cows one sunny spring afternoon when he opened a letter that could change his life: The government was offering to pay off his $200,000 farm loan, part of a new debt relief program created by Democrats to help farmers who have endured generations of racial discrimination.

 

It was a windfall for a 29-year-old who has spent the past decade scratching out a living as the only Black farmer in his corner of northeastern Missouri, where signposts quoting Genesis line the soybean fields and traffic signals warn drivers to go slow because it is planting season.

 

But the $4 billion fund has angered conservative white farmers who say they are being unfairly excluded because of their race. And it has plunged Lewis and other farmers of color into a new culture war over race, money and power in U.S. farming.

 

“You can feel the tension,” Lewis said. “We’ve caught a lot of heat from the conservative Caucasian farmers.”

 

The debt relief is redress set aside for what the government calls “socially disadvantaged farmers” — Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other nonwhite workers who have endured a long history of discrimination, from violence and land theft in the Jim Crow South to banks and federal farm offices that refused them loans or government benefits that went to white farmers.

 

The program is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress to confront how racial injustice has shaped U.S. farming, which is overwhelmingly white. Black farm advocacy groups say that nearly all the land, profit and subsidies go to the biggest, most powerful farm operations, leaving Black farmers with little. But in large portions of rural America, the payments threaten to further anger white conservative farmers.

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2232, 23 May 2021

46 Comments

  1. Mar

    Democrats=racists. They are the new KKK.

  2. Kevin Scheunemann

    Leftists are awful racists.

    Nord, and his ilk, cheer.

  3. Le Roi du Nord

    And you k, are a liar. But at least you are consistent, just like mar.

  4. Mar

    Well, Le Roi, you know all about liars as your the lead liar of the liars club. Senile Joe and President Trump are saints compared to you and they don’t worship judges who like watching babies being raped, like you do.

  5. Mar

    So, Le Roi, do you disown what the Biden administration did?

  6. Kevin Scheunemann

    Nord,

    Will you utter one word of contempt for this leftist, racist policy of your candidate?

    You will not, because you cheerlead racist policy like the Squad cheerleads terrorist Hamas!

  7. Le Roi du Nord

    There you go again k, demanding things from others based on lies and assumptions. One would thinks a rabid christian like yourself would avoid sinning.

  8. Merlin

    Assuming Mr. Lewis has a Mrs. Lewis, at $200,000 Joe Biden is paying way more than he needs to for two votes.

    This is nothing more than an instant equity program that could legitimately just be called reparations. It will be interesting to see just how many NonBlack farmers see a dime of this money. My guess is not very many.

    This isn’t even all that original.

  9. Kevin Scheunemann

    Nord,

    Easy.

    Denounce this evil liberal policy as racist.

    Then we know you are not cheering Biden here.

  10. Kevin Scheunemann

    Nord,

    I’m willing to call out evil policy…why not you?

  11. Mar

    Kevin, Le Roi refuses to answer a very simple question, so we can assume he supports this racist policy.
    Silence is violence.

  12. Le Roi du Nord

    “I’m willing to call out evil policy” That sure isn’t true.

    “Silence is violence” Nor this.

    Again, you guys are consistent.

  13. Mar

    And Le Roi the perverted racist lies again.
    If you cannot even call out a perverted liberal judge who watches babies being raped, you are not capable of calling out evil liberal policies.

  14. Kevin Scheunemann

    Nord,

    Name an evil policy I haven’t denounced.

    I have a laundry list of evil leftist policy you will not say boo against.

    Silence against open evil is support.

  15. Le Roi du Nord

    k:

    You have yet to denounce the evil and anti- democracy policy of R’s to use violence to overthrow our government, and the continued denial of a free and fair election. So don’t lecture me, or others, about calling out evil.

  16. Kevin Scheunemann

    Nord,

    Specifically name one.

    I dare you.

    Meanwhile you say nothing about this overtly racist evil as liberal policy.

    You can’t demand others to do something you will not do yourself.

    That makes you a racist hypocrite.

  17. Le Roi du Nord

    Asked and answered, k. Or is reading and comprehension troubling you again?

    And use the “racist hypocrite “ BS less, and substance more, and folks might believe you.

  18. Mar

    “You have yet to denounce the evil and anti- democracy policy of R’s to use violence to overthrow our government, and the continued denial of a free and fair election. So don’t lecture me, or others, about calling out evil.”
    Name one actual instance of both.

  19. Mar

    And Le Roi supports this racist policy as he supports Senile Joe and liberal racist policies.
    But if course, this not surprising as he supports pervert judges who like watching babies being raped and supports racist policies. So calling Le Roi a racist is completely appropriate.

  20. Kevin Scheunemann

    Nord,

    You did not nane a specific policy.

    You really are dishonest.

    I am willing to focus on this racist Biden policy, why can’t you utter any contempt for Biden’s racism here?

  21. Tuerqas

    Personally, I am way too ignorant of the specifics to offer an informed opinion. I know the largest farms and most organized groups of farms have received trillions in subsidies over the last 50 years and I don’t know that the smaller farms, whether majority or minority owned have received much of that money. I certainly suspect that farm size and lobby represented farms have received the vast majority of it and that the ‘neediest’ farm owners are based on the size of the farm rather than the skin color of the owner. I do not feel bad for the farmers actually able to be heard against it. They are specifically the ones that have done pretty well in subsidies over the last half century.
    I am not anti-farmer either. The Government screwed them with all the price controls that made farming unprofitable in the first place. The middlemen and food processing corporations get way more money for far less work in our food industries.

  22. Le Roi du Nord

    T:

    Could you describe what you mean by “price controls”, and list which crops, animals, commodities, or products you believe are subject to government imposed price controls? Thanks

  23. Mar

    More stupidity from Le Roi

  24. Le Roi du Nord

    How so, mar?

  25. Tuerqas

    Milk, grains, ethanol, eggs. It is a complicated formula in the farm bill which is updated every few years. I don’t know much about the meat market, but farmers selling foods considered (staples?) in the farm bill all have minimum and ceiling prices (Butter is included, but things like cheese that have secondary processes are not covered). If the cost goes above the ceiling, farmers can sometimes get subsidies back. Our hay guy would go on for hours after hay delivery about how he had to take losses at the minimum prices for different products each year that then don’t give subsidies. The minimums are merely conjectures of what a farmer would get to be barely above break even and they are not always accurate from year to year. It grew largely out of the depression era under FDR, wanting to guarantee an affordable price for American poor. I can imagine a world where there are no food price controls would be controlled by farmers. Everyone needs food.

  26. Mar

    You ever here of Google, Le Roi, or Yahoo or Bing or something called Duck?

  27. Le Roi du Nord

    T:

    Per Dept of Ag, there are no government “price controls” that place any cap or limit on what a farmer can receive for their product, and unless the farmer is tied into a contract, they can always look for a buyer willing to pay more. There are price supports, say for milk, that are set regionally, and change with the Farm Bill measures, but no cap on the top end. And there are certain crops that may have acreage limits, say tobacco, but no price controls. (Source: DoAg, NFU)

    Sounds like you hay guy was pulling your leg.

  28. Le Roi du Nord

    mar:

    Your superior intellect has failed you again. The word you are struggling with is “hear”, and the answer is yes. But I wanted T to explain what he meant so I understood his concern before I commented.

  29. Tuerqas

    Le Roi, or it says that you skimmed a single article and looked for a simple conclusion. Punch in how ‘milk prices are determined’ into your handy-dandy google and the first thing said is that “Milk pricing regulations in Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMO) are among the most complicated commodity pricing regimes across all of agriculture.”

    Read on for a while and among other things you will see that the price of milk is determined by amount and intended use in the 11 different regions and all milk sales are ‘pooled’ in those marketing areas. Could a singular farm charge different amounts? The short answer is not likely. If they have jumped through all the hoops and paid all the fees to become a member of an FMMO, they cannot contractually sell at a different price than the one set for the region for that two week period. If they are not a member they are not likely to get more than the FMMO contracted price, why would anyone buy more expensive milk? The FMMOs routinely have to sell off overstock that did not get used at extreme discounts for other purposes. Getting your milk categorized as class I gets you the highest prices within the FMMO, but that is very competitive in each region and your ‘share’ of the pool is based, among other things, upon what class your milk was sold in. This can vary greatly for some farms month to month.

    In addition, the farming contracts have strict guidelines on shortages. They are basically required to overproduce so there will never be a shortage that might cause a price fluctuation. The maximum price is not a specific price that is the same throughout the decades, they are calculated every 2 weeks for each region and the max price you get is for class I milk in your region. You cannot sell in a different region and no one will pay more than the set price for that time period. Sounds like a ceiling to me.

  30. Tuerqas

    That’s just milk, there is truth in the saying that Farmers can literally be paid more not to grow over a specific amount of corn and wheat most notably, but the lesser grains too. Why we don’t increase yield and give food rather than money as aid to poor countries has always stumped and most everyone I have ever asked. It’s just one of those things that makes too much sense, like term limits.

  31. dad29

    It grew largely out of the depression era under FDR,

    Wickard v. Filburn was a landmark Supreme Court of the United States case that was decided in 1942. This case pertained to the constitutional question of whether the United States Government had the authority to A) regulate production of agricultural goods if those goods were intended for personal consumption and B) whether the Federal Government had the authority to regulate trivial intrastate economic activities even if the goods and/or services were not intended for interstate commerce….

    SCOTUS decided that even if it were for PERSONAL USE the Feds have the authority to regulate it.

    BTW, MAR: LeeeeeeeeeRoy is an ignorant troll.

  32. Le Roi du Nord

    T:

    Here is what you said initially: “The Government screwed them with all the price controls that made farming unprofitable in the first place”. That is why I asked for your definition of “price controls”.

    Sure there are all sorts of government policies on pricing, floors, subsidies, etc. contained in various farm/ag policies over the years, but none that I could find when asking our local ASCS office, nor with a representative from NFU that place a cap or ceiling on what a producer can get for their product. So I asked a neighbor that milks ~300 Holsteins, and he said, in short, that there is a government floor, but no cap. If he can get a better contract price, he will, but the price is set by the buyer/processor, not the government.

    Ditto commodities. If you can sell your corn for $20/bu, nobody is going to tell you you can’t. And if you want to buy pork bellies on the commodity market you are free to pay want you want as long as you have a willing seller. Go to a cattle auction house and you can pay $10/# for an old dairy cow if you want, and nobody from the government will stop you or thew seller.

  33. Le Roi du Nord

    dud:

    But it made no mention of price caps, but rather was related to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.

    “The Act was the first to make price support mandatory for corn, cotton, and wheat to help maintain a sufficient supply in low production periods along with marketing quotas to keep supply in line with market demand. It established permissive supports for butter, dates, figs, hops, turpentine, rosin, pecans, prunes, raisins, barley, rye, grain sorghum, wool, winter cover-crop seeds, mohair, peanuts, and tobacco for the 1938-40 period. The agriculture industry changed during the 1930s due to improvements in technology and exposed the south to more modern farming methods, as well as diversifying land. Many acres normally devoted to cotton were now being used to raise cattle or used more efficiently which increased production per acre. Also, title V of the Act established the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. ”

    No mention of price caps.

  34. Mar

    Wow, Le Roi can make a cognitive argument.
    Must be the full moon.
    But he still supports racist policies.

  35. Le Roi du Nord

    The word is “cogent”. Yes I can , and the phase of the moon has no impact on my abilities..

    And once again mar, you are wrong on what policies I support. You sure are consistent in your wrongness.

  36. dad29

    No mention of price caps.

    Correct. The reason I mentioned it was to underline the tyranny present in the system.

  37. Le Roi du Nord

    Quite an exaggeration there, did.

  38. Le Roi du Nord

    Darn auto correct. Should be “dud”.

  39. Mar

    Oh, you poor thing Le Roi. You succeeded for only 1 day to be relevant and then failed again. But you should get a participation ribbon, just like in Special Olympics.
    But I was wrong. It’s not once in full moon you are relevant but in reality, it’s just once in a blood moon.
    Now, high five, Le Roi.

  40. Le Roi du Nord

    That’s some irony there, mar. You misuse words, lie about who or what I support, and you blame me. Grow a pair and own up to your failures.

    I wouldn’t high five you under any circumstances. You would probably blame me for breaking your fingers.

  41. Mar

    And another irrelevant comment from Le Roi.
    I guess it is too much to ask that you can comment with dignity once every 10 months.
    I guess you and Senile Joe will be sharing nursing home rooms or jail cells.
    Since you and Senile Joe have a penchant for very young children and senilalty, it’s a coin toss which one.

  42. Le Roi du Nord

    Everything you said is a lie, mar. You are certainly consistent.

  43. Mar

    Where am I wrong, Le Roi?
    Clearly, you support a pervert judge who watches babies being raped.
    And you clearly are suffering from dementia as you can come up with 1 “cogent” comment every blood moon.
    So, where am I wrong?

  44. Le Roi du Nord

    What about “Everything you said is a lie” don’t you understand?

  45. Mar

    Well, Le Roi, since you cannot utter a word why I am wrong, I guess I am right.
    Since the next Blood moon is not until May 16, 2022, I guess that’s next time we can expect a relevant comment from you.

  46. Le Roi du Nord

    Again, what about “Everything you said is a lie” , is so confusing to you? One with such superior intellect and so much education as you should find that quote an easy concept to grasp.

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