Qiddist Ashé had a gut feeling that a federal program meant to help underserved farmers get access to land wouldn’t last.
In 2023, the Black Oregon Land Trust, a community land trust she co-founded, was awarded $2.5 million from the United States Department of Agriculture. It planned to use $800,000 to purchase land, distribute $300,000 to the Black Food Fund for mini-grants to local farmers, and increase market access for the state’s Black farmers, who represent less than 1% of producers. This is especially critical in Oregon, where early exclusion laws prohibited Black people from living in the state. They are finally seeing a growing interest in people reclaiming ancestral lineage and land stewardship, Ashé noted.
For three years, it’s been a waiting game to receive any funds, and the Black Oregon Land Trust hasn’t received a single dollar, Ashé said. The USDA required awardees to track and report expenses and then invoice for it, she said. Some groups took out loans awaiting to be reimbursed by the feds. Ashé even contemplated getting a line of credit.
“The bank said yes, but I decided against it because something told me — if the chances of this [grant] doesn’t go forward, I don’t want to put our organization in debt,” she said.
Her instinct came true last week when the USDA officially eliminated the $300 million Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program, Politico first reported. The program, established during former President Joe Biden’s tenure, provided grants to nonprofit and tribal organizations and government entities to help underserved producers move “from surviving to thriving.”
This is the most recent decision in a long line of cuts made by the Trump administration targeting programs that could help Black producers who have historically been discriminated against by the USDA. In a statement to Capital B, a USDA spokesperson alleged the program resulted in an “egregious misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
“The program permitted the abuse of federal funds, including expenditures on the purchasing of a barbeque smoker, construction of a gazebo, massages, and for one awardee, a $20,000 budget for ink pens alone,” the statement said.
Other alleged spending under the program, according to the USDA, includes:
- $110,000 for a camper/RV
- $27,000 for drones
- $112,500 for refreshments
- $10,000 for a camera to livestream cooking videos, and
- “multi-million-dollar budgets” with justifications such as travel and supplies.
“USDA remains committed to restoring fiscal discipline and ensuring that programs serve the farmers and ranchers we are mandated to support,” the statement continued.
But, Black farmers and congressional leaders tell Capital B that this decision, among others — like tariffs and rising prices for equipment and fertilizer — is costing them both land and long-term stability.
Nearly 200 farmers are facing pending foreclosures but are afraid to speak publicly, said John Boyd Jr., activist and founder of the National Black Farmers Association. It’s been difficult to meet with this administration, said Boyd, who said he was blocked from attending a farmers’ meeting at the White House in December.
“This is the worst I’ve seen in my 43-year career of Black hate in your face, bold hate from an administration, from a president,” Boyd said. “We’re going to have to band together and push back. This is millions of dollars. These farmers could buy some land with that money in those programs. It’s deplorable what this administration is doing.”
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democrat from Alabama, said the administration’s actions will only lead to more hardship for Black farmers.
“Farmers are already struggling to make ends meet because of the president’s reckless tariff and trade policies,” he wrote.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, told Capital B that it is frustrating that this administration seems committed to going back to a time when America’s farmers did not receive equal treatment from the USDA.
“Farming is one of the toughest jobs in America,” Warnock wrote in a statement. “That’s why I was proud to help secure this funding for underserved farmers in 2022 — and why I’ll continue fighting on their behalf until all our nation’s farmers receive the support and assistance they deserve.”
The need for more support
Ashé knew something was wrong beginning in 2024.
She couldn’t get in contact with USDA employees regarding the grant. The next year, after President Donald Trump began his second term, communication was nearly impossible, particularly as a result of USDA employee layoffs and the federal government shutdown.
“It’s definitely a loss, but not a surprising one,” she said.
Without the expected millions of dollars, Ashé said, the trust must shift the scale and scope of the work it planned to do. It can’t purchase more land or hire more staff. It is pulling together its resources with other organizations to accomplish more with less.
“We’re having to be creative about how we collaborate with other organizations in our ecosystem, to share funding tools to do things,” she said. “In some ways, it’s forcing us to be more effective and efficient because we can’t have multiple people doing the same work. We can’t afford it.”
The biggest challenge, she said, is not putting money directly into the hands of small-scale farmers who are on the edge of “economic viability.” It also means the organization must be in fundraising mode constantly instead than focusing more on the work.
Sharon Mallory, executive director of 2020 Farmers Cooperative, a national co-op of small-scale farmers, also was awarded a grant. The cooperative planned to get farmers market ready, create learning labs to teach regenerative agriculture practices, and even redistribute land. The end of the grant — and the three-year delay in accessing the funds — has disrupted its work.
“We were saying, ‘Well, let’s go ahead and take a chance, dig a little deeper in the coffer, and try to get these programs up and going,’ because we really believe we’re in crisis right now,” Mallory said. “To receive that termination was a blow, because we have expended these resources thinking that we were going to be getting them back, and now you’re telling us it was terminated.”
Her organization is now hosting a fundraiser to continue the work.
In some ways, the loss of funding presents an opportunity for others — particularly wealthy individuals, institutions and communities — to support their own, multiple farmers told Capital B.
“We know collectively that the government isn’t going to be our primary source of resources, so I think this is just a really stark example of that, and what the impact is,” Ashé said. “I feel inspired to use this moment to really generate more action and activation of the need for community investments to be community led.”
As Boyd emphasized: “The urgency is upon us now.”
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