Returning African American farmers to the land: Recent trends and a policyrationale

Today, there are only about 18,000 black farmers in the United States. Decl ining by 98 percent since 1920, they have suffered losses due to public pol icy, economic pressures, and racial oppression. All of these factors must b e addressed if African American farmers and their communities are to thrive . in this article, we use Census of Agriculture data and a follow-on survey in one Mississippi Delta county to review the current situation of black f armers. We introduce the concept of "returning farmers" to suggest that a s ignificant number of black farmers, who are not defined as "farmers" by the Census, still own land and want to farm again. The first section of the ar ticle provides a brief overview of the historical and current trends in the U.S. The second section discusses Delta County, drawing upon our interview s and the Census of Agriculture. The third section discusses the implicatio ns of civil rights violations by the former Farmers Home Administration of the U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture and the resulting class-action lawsuit. Finally, we conclude with a policy recommendation to slow the drastic decl ine of African-American farmers.