Ask most Americans today what breaks the bank, and they’ll tell you it’s the cost of feeding their families. Skyrocketing costs and stagnant wages have made it tougher to afford life’s basics. The family farmers who produce our food know this struggle all too well. With fuel, land and equipment growing more expensive by the day, and Big Ag monopolies pulling the strings of the market, it’s a miracle any of us can make a living.
Many farmers don’t. In fact, nearly half of all small farmers in America take second jobs to make ends meet, while hundreds file for bankruptcy every year. And this was all before the pandemic supply chain problems choked our ability to get products to market.
It’s been hard on all of us, but some have it far worse. Farmers of color — the more than 45,000 Black, 112,000 Latino, 50,000 Indigenous and 25,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander growers working across the United States — have to deal not only with the razor-thin earnings that come with independent farming, but must also swim against the tide of historic and ongoing discrimination within the industry, from the government and even from some of their neighbors. Black farmers alone have lost more than $326 billion in generational wealth due to land loss and predatory lending by the USDA over the last century.
