Texas agriculture official sues Biden administration, saying aid to farmers of color discriminates against white farmers
Last month, agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack pledged to reverse decades of discriminatory lending practices and policies by the USDA with the help of $4 billion earmarked from The American Rescue Plan to help Black farmers and other farmers of color with debt relief. This week, with the help of a Trump-aligned legal group, Texas agriculture commissioner Sid Miller filed a lawsuit claiming that the plan to redress discrimination was itself discriminatory because it leaves out white farmers, reports FERN’s Ag Insider Daily. “These racial exclusions are patently unconstitutional, and the Court should permanently enjoin their enforcement,” the suit argues. Black farmers lost more than 90 percent of the land they owned between 1910 and 1997, while white farmers only lost 2 percent. By the time President Obama took office, the agency had a backlog of more than 14,000 discrimination complaints.
