USDA set to give $2.2 billion to minority farmers by end of 2023

By TOM GANTERT THE CENTER SQUARE MANAGING EDITOR

(The Center Square) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is taking the first steps in handing out $2.2 billion to farmers, ranchers or forest landowners who experienced discrimination with USDA farm lending programs.

The Inflation Reduction Act that was signed by President Joe Biden in August 2022 authorizes the spending.

But the USDA isn’t ready to say just who will get the money.

“Future details concerning the application period for farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners seeking financial assistance through this new program will be announced once the national administrator and vendors for the four regional hubs are selected and prepared to begin the application process,” the USDA told The Center Square in an email.

“These funds are yet another stepping stone in the long march toward justice and an inclusive, equitable USDA.

Through this program and a neutral, comprehensive financial assistance process, USDA will acknowledge wrongs of the past and open up avenues that provide farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who have experienced discrimination by USDA the opportunity to be heard,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a media release.

The USDA said it would like to start making payments to eligible farmers by the end of 2023.

“Whether this is the best way to go about facilitating minority farm owners and operators to be successful is not clear to me,” said Vincent Smith, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. “Is this the best use of funds? Whether it is the most efficient way to go or it is an administration symbolically saying we are trying to help minorities is a completely different question.”

The state of Minnesota had four pension systems that saw big returns in 2021 but followed by losses in 2022.

The Minnesota Correctional Fund (+30.2%/-6.4%), the Minnesota General Employee Fund (+30.3%/-6.2%), the Minnesota Police and Fire Fund (+30.3%/-6.2%) and the Minnesota Volunteer Firefighter Fund (+20.6%/-13.1%) all had big gains in 2021, followed by losses in 2022.

Pension systems prepare for big swings in investment returns by having a smoothing effect, which means they project an average return — usually between 6% and 8% — over a certain number of years.