White farmers have voiced their frustration after President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package this week awarded $5billion to minority farmers while not offering them the same aid.
The Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act was introduced to the relief package by Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock in early February to provide immediate financial relief to black, indigenous, and Hispanic farmers.
The bill provides $4billion in direct payments to farmers of color and has allocated $1 billion to address systemic racism at the U.S. Agriculture Department (USAD), providing legal assistance to farmers of color and grants and loans to improve land access for minorities.
The $4billion will provide direct payments of up to 120 percent of a ‘socially disadvantaged’ farmer or rancher’s outstanding debt as of January 1, 2021.
Yet white farmers believe the add-on to the relief package is discriminatory as South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham blasts the money as ‘reparations’.
Hellbound and Down 