Socially Disadvantaged Farmer Issues can be Addressed When Diverse Frontline Agricultural Workers Proactively Work Together

This paper focuses on socially disadvantaged farmers (SDFs) and civil rights issues as it relates to the USDA. It also deals with Diversity Initiatives in the 2008 Farm Bill, and discusses an assessment by Jackson Lewis LLC of the USDA’s efforts to deal with the diversity initiatives. Redacted USDA case studies examined at the 2010 Professional Agricultural Workers Conference at Tuskegee University are presented. The findings revealed that at that time the 2008 Farm Bill Initiatives were not effectively being implemented. It was recommended that the USDA should: keep making the effort to reform or improve its civil rights practices; be more customer-oriented; follow-up on clients; be transparent; and continue using 1890s, community-based organizations, and other outreach entities to reach SDFs