Submitted November 15, 2022, to the US Department of Agriculture: Comments on Public Comment on Providing Financial Assistance for Producers and Landowners Determined To Have Experienced Discrimination (Docket No. USDA-2022-0015). Download these comments here.

“Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aims to provide assistance to the nation’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in USDA’s farm lending programs. As stated in the announcement, Section 22007 can potentially “[provide] a transformative opportunity for USDA to help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners impacted by discrimination in the USDA farm lending program.” In order to achieve parity in our food system we must immediately, substantially, and permanently address issues of discrimination from the bottom up, from the racial, ethnic, social, sexual inequalities, to the discrimination system of corporations against our individual agency and democracy. Regarding IRA Section 22007, we fear that once again good intentions can only go so far but the comments below offer our good faith recommendations to maximize the impact of the program”