TY - JOUR
T1 - A new era of civil rights? Latino immigrant farmers and exclusion at the United States Department of Agriculture
AU - Minkoff-Zern, Laura Anne
AU - Sloat, Sea
N1 - Funding Information:
Conversely, scholars have argued that the USDA has a history of democratic planning and resource distribution, including many agency leaders and other individuals who have worked explicitly with farmers of color, African-American farmers in particular (Couto ; Gilbert ). These arguments directly contend with Scott’s monolithic description of the state. As such a large government agency, there is no one consistent way staff or leadership interacts with the public. Despite the generally industrial focus of USDA funds, there are USDA opportunities for small-scale farmers, as well as for those that have been deemed sustainable, or socially disadvantaged by the agency. The Sustainable Agriculture and Research (SARE) program offers USDA sponsored grants and outreach in each state. Additionally, the USDA conducts research and development related to local food initiatives, such as farmers’ markets, which are the primary markets for the Latino immigrant farmers included in this study. In this way, the farmer participants of this research have indirectly benefitted from the support of local and direct market initiatives funded by the agency. Finally, in recent years, and as a result of the lawsuits mentioned above, the USDA has devoted new funding to support farmers identified as socially disadvantaged, such as minority farmers, Latino farmers included. This support may also reach Latino immigrant farmers indirectly through new programs and funding available to nonprofits outreaching and providing agricultural assistance in their communities.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - In this article we investigate how Latino immigrant farmers in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States navigate United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs, which necessitate standardizing farming practices and an acceptance of bureaucracy for participation. We show how Latino immigrant farmers’ agrarian norms and practices are at odds with the state’s requirement for agrarian standardization. This interview-based study builds on existing historical analyses of farmers of color in the United States, and the ways in which their farming practices and racialized identities are often unseen by and illegible to the state. This disjuncture leads to the increased racial exclusion of immigrant farmers from USDA opportunities. Such exclusions impede the transition to a “new era of civil rights,” as has been proclaimed by USDA leadership. Although efforts to address institutionalized racism on a national level may be genuine, they have failed to acknowledge this schism between rural Latino immigrants and the state, thereby inhibiting a meaningful transition in the fields, and continuing a legacy of unequal access to agrarian opportunities for non-white immigrant farmers.
AB - In this article we investigate how Latino immigrant farmers in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States navigate United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs, which necessitate standardizing farming practices and an acceptance of bureaucracy for participation. We show how Latino immigrant farmers’ agrarian norms and practices are at odds with the state’s requirement for agrarian standardization. This interview-based study builds on existing historical analyses of farmers of color in the United States, and the ways in which their farming practices and racialized identities are often unseen by and illegible to the state. This disjuncture leads to the increased racial exclusion of immigrant farmers from USDA opportunities. Such exclusions impede the transition to a “new era of civil rights,” as has been proclaimed by USDA leadership. Although efforts to address institutionalized racism on a national level may be genuine, they have failed to acknowledge this schism between rural Latino immigrants and the state, thereby inhibiting a meaningful transition in the fields, and continuing a legacy of unequal access to agrarian opportunities for non-white immigrant farmers.
KW - Immigrant farming
KW - Latino farmers
KW - Race in agriculture
KW - United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
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U2 - 10.1007/s10460-016-9756-6
DO - 10.1007/s10460-016-9756-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84994721709
SN - 0889-048X
VL - 34
SP - 631
EP - 643
JO - Agriculture and Human Values
JF - Agriculture and Human Values
IS - 3
ER -