Current Cattle Market Daily Headlines for March 16, 2021

americancattlemarkets

5 years ago

Black farmers have long faced discrimination, new aid aims to right past wrongs

Many people aren’t aware that somewhere within President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law is provisions meant to help Black farmers who have dealt with generations of systemic discrimination.
According to the Department of Agriculture, $4 billion has been allocated within the American Rescue plan for “socially disadvantaged” farmers to pay off debts that have prevented their farms from growing.
- Another $1.01 billion is being used to create a racial equity commission.
  - Socially disadvantaged farmers include African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Native Americans.
- According to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the provisions set aside for Black farmers are an “acknowledgement that acts of discrimination took place.”
  - He believes that discrimination has grown against Black farmers over time and in order for USDA to be equitable and fair, we must address this discrimination.
- In 1920, Black-run farms accounted for approximately 14 percent of the total in the U.S.
  - Today, Black farmers are less than 2 percent of all farmers.
    - Additionally, their farms tend to be smaller in size. In 2017, the agriculture census reported that Black-operated farms made up 0.5 percent of the total farmland in the U.S.
  - A series of government reports show that local offices within the Department of Agriculture denied or delayed loans to Black farmers starting in the 1960s.

According to Russell Johnson, a cattle rancher from New Mexico, the invasion of illegal immigration during the first month of the Biden Presidency, coupled with the end of construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall, has caused him and his family to feel “terrorized.”
While President Trump was in office, part of the border wall along Johnson’s ranch was built, but construction came to a screeching halt when Biden took office and three-quarters-of-a-mile hole was left wide open.
To maintain “some sense of security,” Johnson travels around his property, which his family has owned for more than 100 years, with weapon in hand.
Johnson would like to tell President Biden to do the right thing and finish the wall.
- If finished correctly, the wall will provide improved weather access roads, censor packages, lighting and integrated camera towers.
  - “It’s a complete and total package – it’s not just about the wall. The Biden administration’s decision to stop construction on the wall took away any sense of hope for security for my family, the American public and our livelihood,” said Johnson.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has found animal parts from slaughtered cattle spread across two open fields owned by Feedlot Service Company, which is located about 3 miles southeast of Neola.
DNR found cattle hides, tails, hooves, bellies, hearts and other parts spread on two fields totaling approximately 160 acres.
- They also found paunch manure, which is a partially digested stomach content of slaughtered livestock.
The feedlot owner said that he has a state license to apply paunch manure to his land, but that license does not include dead animal parts.
- According to the DNR, improper animal disposal can spread disease and endanger human and animal health.
Investigators have collected water samples at the feedlot for laboratory analysis in two locations where paunch manure stockpile runoff entered nearby Keg Creek.
The DNR is working with the feedlot owner to excavate and remove dead animal parts from both fields and has directed him to stop runoff from reaching the creek.