WASHINGTON – Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, Chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations, sent a letter Thursday to Naomi Earp, current Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture on issues related to socially disadvantaged farmers.  The letter urges Earp, who awaits Senate confirmation as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, to address USDA’s past treatment of black farmers and other farmers of color, as well as outline steps the department will take to improve that relationship moving forward.

Pointing to the continued decline in the number of black farmers reflected in the 2017 Census of Agriculture, Fudge wrote, “This downward trend is alarming as it reflects the residual impact of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) long history of discrimination against black farmers… This prejudice has resulted in loss of land, delays or rejection in farm credit loans, and lack of access to technical assistance for farm programs.”

Rep. Fudge went on in the letter to call on Earp to “make helping this shrinking population of farmers a top priority.”

The text of the letter can be found here.

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