"Not a new pattern": Black farmers' perspectives on barriers to participating in federal farm programs

Although there are more opportunities and re­vamped avenues for socially disadvantaged farmers to participate in federal agricultural program since Pigford v. Glickman, the first Black farmer class action lawsuit against USDA and subsequent billion dollar settlement, there is not a lot of scholarly research on Black farmers’ perspectives and experiences in accessing and using these programs today. Using data from nine focus groups in Mississippi with 89 Black farmers, we find that Black farmers and ranchers identify several barriers to program participation, namely communication about programs and problems with the application and approval process, including a lack of standardization and transparency. Inter­woven throughout the discussions of barriers were conversations about racial and gender discrimina­tion, with producers soundly in agreement that the former persists, and the latter is an issue. This research informs our understandings of Black farmers’ experiences of how racial hierarchies and networks continue to shape their ability to access and participate in federal farm programs; policy recommendations are provided.

Japanese Beef Tariffs: Beef Quality, Farm Programs, and Producer Compensation

Beef is a highly protected commodity in Japan and the number of studies on the impact of beef import tariff reduction has increased in light of the controversy over the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), in which the gains from freer trade in beef was a major point of discussion. We estimate that an 11% tariff reduction for Japanese imports of both Australian and U.S. beef can generate a net welfare gain to Japan of between US$92 million and US$915 million. These results are not overly sensitive to whether beef is treated as homogeneous or heterogeneous. A more significant determinant of welfare gains is the extent to which farm policy would be decoupled along with tariff reductions. Under a decoupled farm program, producer welfare can remain unchanged while the net gain from freer trade is identical to that of complete removal of price supports with no compensation to producers. Therefore, negotiators for U.S. and Australian beef interests should lobby for both lowered tariffs and a decoupling of domestic farm policy within the importing country. This seems to have been the case as Japan was willing to move toward a more decoupled farm program under the TPPA.