JD Vance on $2.2B USDA program to address discrimination: ‘Disgraceful’

We wrote earlier this week about the USDA setting aside $2.2 billion for farmers who had endured discrimination in the implementation of federal agriculture programs.

You’re not going to be surprised to learn that JD Vance, who has styled himself a great defender of Appalachia, thinks the program is “disgraceful.”

“I don’t think we should say, you get farm benefits if you’re a Black farmer, you don’t get farm benefits if you’re a white farmer. All farmers, we want to thrive, and that’s certainly the President Trump and JD Vance view of the situation,” Vance said in an interview with the CBS news program “Face the Nation.”

You almost don’t need me to say that Vance, the vice presidential nominee on the Republican Party ticket, grossly mischaracterized the program.

The Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, established through the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law two years ago, was, in fact, not limited to Black farmers. Any farmer who had experienced discrimination from the implementation of USDA programs – including based on sexual orientation or gender identity, religion, age, or disability – was eligible to apply.

ICYMI

The USDA, last month, announced that it has distributed payments to more than 43,000 people in all 50 states through the program.

John Boyd Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, told Mother Jones that he estimates 85 percent of the funds went to Black farmers, “because it’s obvious we were treated the worst.”

Mother Jones cited its recent award-winning investigation, “40 Acres and a Lie,” to document how the federal government stole land it gave to Black farmers following the Civil War, and put up barriers for Black farmers in receiving loans, credit, and support compared to white farmers.

Which is to say, checks out.

“He owes us an apology,” Boyd said of Vance, adding that the VP nominee’s remarks were “disgraceful, deplorable, dumb, degrading, and disrespectful to the nation’s Black farmers, the oldest occupation in history for Black people.”