BY MATTIE MACK
The following column appeared in the January 29 issue of the
Meade County News Leader, published in western Kentucky, under
the headline "Local farmer speaks out." The author, Mattie Mack,
is a leader of the Minority Farmers of Meade County and a
participant in the class-action lawsuit against the U.S.
Department of Agriculture for discrimination against farmers who
are Black. In a phone interview, Mack said she will be going
with a vanload of other farmers to Washington, D.C., March 2 for
a rally protesting the inadequate terms of the settlement the
USDA is offering to end the farmers' struggle. She will be
speaking in Detroit February 16-17 about the farmers' fight to
keep their land and end racist discrimination.
I am Mattie Mack and I have been a farmer all of my life. It has gotten to the place where a farmer can't make a living on the farm. It's been a long time that the price of hogs and cattle have been so low and the grain market, such as corn, wheat, oats, barley, and soybeans are at an all time low. Let me tell you people, the old farmer is hurting really bad. They have loans and can't find a way to pay them back. It is rough out here!
When I raised my 4 children and 38 foster children, we could make a decent living on the farm. It wasn't this hard, but I tell the farmers that God will make a way somehow. I look and see how pretty the plants look out in the fields every spring of the year, and I say that God is doing his part of the work, and the farmer is doing his part of work.
Then when you go to sell the crops, that's where the problem lies. Something is going to have to be done about this. I thought we had tobacco under control, and the farmers and tobacco companies were going to work together. Then President Clinton gave his State of the Union Speech the other night. It looks real bad for the tobacco farmers. Tobacco has been good for us, it is the only crop we could depend on. That has been our lively hood over the years. It has paid our property taxes, insurance, educated our children, bought us trucks and tractors, black topped our road, and has provided us a pretty good Christmas each year. Working on a farm is hard work. Second Timothy, chapter 2, verse 6, "The Farmer who has done the hard work should have the first share of the harvest." We do good to get the last and that's not very much as you can see. Farming is an everyday job, no matter what the weather is we have to work. There are no days off for the farmers. Something has to be done.