Farmer Equity Act: A Policy to Improve Access for Farmers of Color

Historically, farmers and ranchers who are Black, Indigenous or people of color have faced systemic discrimination from state and federal agriculture institutions.

Racist policies have resulted in farmers of color being denied access to capital and ultimately losing land while historically being underserved by government agencies. These policies have created a ripple impact over the decades and have resulted in farmers of color not receiving the same resources as their white counterparts. In the 1990s, the United States Department of Agriculture recognized socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as an officially distinct category. While this effort was a step in the right direction, for many farmers of color state agency resources remain unobtainable. In an effort to better serve their farmers of color, advocates and legislators partnered in California to pass the Farmer Equity Act, which created policies at the State Department of Food and Agriculture to ensure that their state agricultural agencies are accounting for farmer equity throughout the agency.

Now, three years after the bill was enacted into law a new department has been developed to ensure its implementation. Along the way there have been some challenges, some successes and a lot of lessons learned that may be of interest to other states considering similar action.

Participants:


Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, California State Assembly
Representative Sonya Harper, Illinois General Assembly
Thea Rittenhouse, Farm Equity Adviser, California Department of Food and Agriculture
Chanowk Yisrael, Chief Seed Starter, The Yisrael Urban Family Farm

Farm and Food Chain Workers: Equity and Justice in the Food System

SiX Main Takeaways

  1. Farmworkers make up just one link of the food supply chain—there's also processing, distribution, retail, and restaurant and service workers. In total, 21.5 million people are food chain workers in this country. Policies should take into account all types of food chain workers.
  2. Food and farmworkers are some of the lowest-paid and exploited workers in the country because they are not covered by many federal labor laws. State legislators can fill in the gaps where the federal system has failed.
  3. Protecting food workers means more than just raising wages because workers are also endangered by heat, toxic chemical exposure, substandard housing, COVID-19, smoke from wildfires, and more. Some states have already passed bills to address these problems.
  4. Even in states with progressive legislatures, large growers and other agricultural interests have a lot of influence at the state house. Changing the system requires buy-in from a variety of stakeholders.
  5. The best policies will come from including farm and food workers at the table. These are skilled laborers and they know what policies are necessary.
  6. National grassroots coalitions can help connect legislators to farm and food worker organizations in every state. SiX can help connect you!