agriculture definition

While women have always been recognized as critically important to our food system, their leadership role in agricultural production is a more recent phenomenon.  Last month, the USDA ERS released a new report, Characteristics of Women Farm Operators and Their Farms by Robert Hoppe and Penni Korb. According to this report, "[t]he share of U.S. farms operated by women nearly tripled over the past three decades."  The report uses census data to provide information about these women farmers and the types of farms they operate.  Although it only reflects data up to the last farm census in 2007, it provides a fascinating look at the increasing significant role that women are playing in operating their own farms. It was almost twenty years ago when I wrote Who Owns the Family Farm: The Struggle to Determine the Property Rights of Farm Wives , 14 N. ILL. U. L. REV. 689 (1994) and the companion short piece, The Property Rights of Farm Wives ,  AGRIC. L. UPDATE, Nov. 1994 at...

In a Voice of the People letter to the editor published in today's Chicago Tribune, USDA Discrimination , Secretary Vilsack weighed in on the Times and Tribune criticism of the settlement process used to resolve longstanding discrimination complaints at the USDA.  Secretary Vilsack takes emphasizes the controls built into the new settlements approved by the Obama administration. He states that the USDA "ensured that each would be led by a neutral, third-party adjudicator . . . [and] that "each of the processes require documentary evidence in order for a claimant to prevail."  He further promises that " all potentially fraudulent claims are referred to the appropriate federal authorities for investigation." George Mason's History News Network published an article, NYT Ignores USDA Discrimination , written by Agricultural Historian, Pete Daniel.  Daniel's latest book is Dispossession: Discrimination against African American Farmers in the Age of Civi...

The Times article, U.S. Opens Spigot After Farmers Claim Discrimination , the subject of several recent posts, continues to circulate, with others relying on the information provided . This is unfortunate, as there are many areas where the information presented is misleading, and few outside of the specialized world of agricultural law are likely grasp the significance. I offer some examples specifically related to the Pigford settlement with African American farmers. First, I provide a quote from the article, and then I explain why it is misleading. �In 16 ZIP codes in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and North Carolina, the number of successful claimants exceeded the total number of farms operated by people of any race in 1997, the year the lawsuit was filed.� The number of farms in 1997 is essentially a meaningless statistic.  While the lawsuit was filed in 1997, it relates to the preceding 15 year period (1986-1997). Farms, particularly smal farms, are not static. During this ti...

A number of scholars who work in different areas related to agriculture, food, and justice co-authored a response letter to Sharon LaFraniere's article, U.S. Opens Spigot After Farmers Claim Discrimination , which appeared in the New York Times.  Their response was published as a Letter to the Editor in the Times today, along with a letter from Ralph Paige, the executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund . The letters were posted together under the heading  Bias and a Settlement With Black Farmers  in the online version, with the notation that a version appeared in the printed issue May 4, 2013, on page A20. Both letters provide context regarding historical patterns of discrimination and its tragic effects.  And, they criticize the Times article for its decision to focus on anecdotes of fraud and "cherry-picked examples" to tell an incomplete story. The list of the scholars who submitted their Letter to the Editor was not includ...

The New York Times published an article last week titled, U.S. Opens Spigot After Farmers Claim Discrimination . I read the article with interest, as I have been teaching advanced law classes in Agricultural Finance & Credit for many years in the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law . I teach a unit on USDA discrimination each year in my class. Discrimination in the delivery of USDA programs is a painful and complex subject. I was alarmed to see errors, omissions, and misleading references in the Times article. I am very disappointed that the author appeared more interested in producing a salacious story than in treating the issue with the respect and depth that it deserved. I offer corrections and additional information. First, the article mischaracterizes the terms of the Pigford settlement, implying falsely that all claimants received payment. In fact, 31% of those who were eligible to file claims, almost one-third of claimants, were denied relief. Clearly, some of the ...