BY JAMES HARRIS
ASHBURN, Georgia - Working farmers are facing their worst
crisis in decades, as real incomes plummet and they are
caught in the squeeze of falling commodity prices and
monopoly costs of seed, fertilizer, pesticides, and farm
machinery. Many are deeply mired in impossible debt. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicts 38,000 farms a year
will go under through 2002.
Farmers who are Black are now losing farm land at a rate that is two and a half times that of other U.S. farmers. They face the same conditions as all other working farmers, plus the added onus of racist discrimination. Over a 15-year period from 1978 to 1992, farmers who are Black lost 55 percent of their land -down from 57,000 farms and 4.2 million acres of land in 1978 to 18,816 farms and 2.3 million acres in 1992.
Carl Parker is a 41-year-old farmer who lives in this southern Georgia town. He is part of a class-action lawsuit filed against the USDA in 1996, demanding redress for years of discrimination against farmers who are Black in providing low-interest loans and crop assistance from government agencies. Parker opposes the proposed settlement that lawyers for the USDA and the farmers are pushing, which would give most plaintiffs just $50,000 and relief from those debts to the USDA that they can prove are a result of discrimination. He plans to participate in the March 2 rally in Washington, D.C., opposing the agreement.
USDA foreclosures continue
Despite the temporary moratorium on foreclosures against
farmers who are plaintiffs in the suit, USDA officials in
some local areas are moving to carry out business as usual,
hoping farmers are unaware of their rights.
Parker has been informed that the USDA is carrying out procedures to foreclose on land he and his brother, Gary Parker, own. Georgia USDA officials are claiming that Parker is not a part of the class-action suit, and have told him they plan to put his land up for auction the first week in February. The USDA recently backed down from this threat.
Carl Parker finds it suspicious that officials claim not to know that he part of the suit, since his status as a plaintiff stopped an attempted foreclosure proceeding against him in July 1998. The way he learned of the planned auction added to his suspicions. A neighbor wanted to rent Parker's farm, and called the USDA office. The county loan officer told the neighbor the land would soon be on sale. The neighbor told Parker he wouldn't be renting, because he would probably be able to buy the land soon at a cheap price. This was later confirmed when Parker called the office and learned they were up to their old tricks.
Far from being the neutral government agency it claims, Parker believes local officials in the USDA office have it in for him because of his fighting example. A USDA official "told one of my neighbors, `You have to watch those two guys [Carl and Gary Parker]. They are smart. I've been trying and trying and haven't be able to successfully get them yet,' " Parker said. "I took that as a vendetta against us."
"They want my land bad," the farmer continued. "One reason is that we have been appraised at about $170,000 dollars in standing timber on the land right now, and a lot of young timber growing."
Parker has proof that he is part of the suit and is confident he can beat back this most recent attempt to take his land. But the fact that his land is in dispute means it might as well be foreclosed. He is unable to get the loans necessary to farm. Other farmers won't rent the land while the outcome is pending, either because they want to buy the land or not get caught in the middle.
Other farmers who are involved in the lawsuit report they've gotten calls from banks, feed companies, and equipment suppliers, all of whom are closely eyeing the terms of the settlement and awaiting the decision date, standing in line for their share. For some farmers, this will place any plans they have to continue farming in jeopardy.
Battle to keep the land
Parker's history is one that many working farmers can
identify with. He began farming with his father when he
graduated from high school, and has fought to overcome
crushing debt since the early 1980s.
"My father died in the early 1980s," said Parker. "One morning he called the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) and asked about his loan application. The supervisor said the loan was denied. I could see something went all over him at that point. That was Monday morning. He went all day and that night he had a massive heart attack and died. At that point he owed Farmers Home, I guess, $200,000. And he owed the Federal Land Bank about $300,000. I guess the pressure from that killed him."
After their father's death Carl and Gary took over the farm and began the long fight to save their 207 acres apiece and continue farming. They grew cotton, soybeans, peanuts, corn, and wheat, as well as raising livestock.
"The FmHA made us a loan," said Parker, "and they made us put up everything we had - hogs, farm equipment, and cattle, everything. The first year we were able to pay them off, so the next year we went back and borrowed more money because we didn't make enough to pay them and farm again. That next year there was a drought so we were not able to pay them all that we owed them. So they turned around and told us that we couldn't borrow any more money unless we acquired more land. We got more land - but in my opinion we were just getting deeper in debt. Then there was another drought in 1985."
The family was again unable to pay the debt, but managed to stave off losing the land. The day-to-day functioning of the USDA has been ruthless against the Parkers, as it is with all working farmers in debt. In 1989 when his house burned down, Carl had to sign the check he got from the insurance company over to the USDA rather than use it to rebuild his home. Then, the same office refused to give him a loan to rebuild the house, claiming he was already in too much debt.
The Parkers continued to try to farm until 1990, when their crop insurance company refused to cover their losses. At that time the brothers were farming about 1,000 acres of land, some of it rented. Since 1990 the Parkers have not been able to farm. They are trying to hold onto the land and find a way to resume farming, supporting themselves through off-farm jobs in the meantime.
In December 1997 the USDA started foreclosure proceedings against Gary Parker's half of the farm. They advertised in the newspaper that there would be a auction on the courthouse steps in Columbus, Georgia, Jan. 6, 1998. "We filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy to stop it. That was the only way we could stop it. We got there two minutes before sale time," Carl Parker chuckled "and that's what stopped it. And we have been fighting it ever since."
`Read carefully before accepting deal'
As Parker sees it, the consent decree aimed at ending the
lawsuit is a long way from what farmers need. "Every farmer
should carefully read the actual words of the settlement
before they decide to support it.
"I owe them [the USDA] about $550,000 with accumulating interest of $67.00 a day. My brother owes about the same.... Together we owe around $1.1 million. If the suit goes through like it is, we will get our debt reduced to about $400,000. We could still lose the farm," said Parker.
The settlement stipulates that a claimant can only get debt relief from the government for discrimination that he can prove, and this is not easy to do. Parker believes he has enough documented proof of discrimination that goes back to 1990, but is not sure he can prove back to 1984 even though the discrimination was real.
Parker spoke about the difficulty in convincing some farmers that the government's much-publicized offer is not all it's cracked up to be. Some want to believe that they are finally going to see relief from their long struggles. Others who don't intend to farm again think it's best to cut their losses and go for the deal, he said.
"It's hard to convince people. A lot of farmers are just hearing about the $50,000 and they think all government debts are canceled. One fellow told me that he didn't believe the government would get on TV and put in the paper things that they aren't going to do, because it would open them up to a lawsuit. I told him what does he think we are already in," laughed Parker. But Parker is determined to get out the facts and encourage other farmers to fight for more. "It might hurt me, I might lose mine, but I'm going to fight to help somebody else," he declared.
Parker has an active schedule over the next period. He will be talking to farmers in his area about the realities of the settlement and showing them the actual written proposal. He plans to be in Albany, Georgia, on February 13 at a meeting called to discuss the settlement. He also plans to attend the first national conference of the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association on February 20 in Tillery, North Carolina, and he plans to be in Washington on March 2.
James Harris is a member of the United Transportation Union. Arlene Rubinstein contributed to this article.