Pigford Passed Now What?

Washington D.C ~ As the nation celebrates the long awaited passing of the Pigford II, we have to stop and ask What Happens Next?

Does this truly make an impact on the State of Black Agriculture and Black Farmers in the present and future?

I find that in my day to day activities and talking to people, some folks forget or don't know that Pigford II is to right the wrongs of the past, by paying dues to Black farmers who were discriminated against who filed after the Pigford I case.

These are claims from 1981 to 1996, almost 30 years ago.

I also notice people don't know the state of Black Farmers today. They don't know that average age of a Black Farmer is 60 years old, some say 63 depending on whose data you look at.

We heard on CNN before Pigford II was passed in the U.S. Congress, from elder Black Farmer Advocate leader say how many of those claimants who have waited for Pigford II to pass, have died waiting. So what does this mean?

That means a lot of the Pigford payees will be the children of those who originally filed claims. These are the children who grew up and have had to see what the government systematically did to their parents, their farm, their land, their heritage. Now these children - now grown adults are now considered black land owners, and want nothing to do with being a farmer.

They see their parents make an average of $22,000.00 a year when other farmers of other races make well over $100,000.00 a year growing the same thing. Who would want to continue a cycle of suffering?

Where does that leave the state of Black Agriculture and Black Farmers? Today, Black farmers are almost 1% of all U.S. farmers and declining, every day. With numbers that low we have two options - extinction, or revival.

I vote revival.

We have no time to celebrate long, now is where the gravel meets the road and we need to get to work.

Will Pigford II money revitalize Black Agriculture?

Not if we do the exact same thing we have done over the last 30 years, fighting past discrimination, we must also look to the future.
I was once told by a farmer "dirt, and money don't put seeds in the ground, and seeds in the ground don't pay the bills", I understand that now and it applies to money to this topic. We can't expect that if you have some money and land that you are going to get back into farming, and if you do get back into farming, just growing things will not pay your bills, you have to sell your goods to make money.

Let's get the children and heirs with cash infusions to look broadly at agriculture, their land, and their heritage as something to hold on to and fight for. Give them the tools to see agriculture as a business and a legacy. Give them the tools to run their farm as a business, tools that do not stop when the food is grown, or just farmers markets (farmers markets don't exist everywhere and not all farmers make money at them).

Let's teach our farmers distribution, marketing, packaging, post-harvest practice, co-operative buying and selling, business taxes, business planning, and the list could go on, along with farmers markets.

Let's use Pigford as a rallying cry to get those who are producing profitable, while creating new black farmers and give them the tools to become producers, sustainable, and profitable.

Let's educate more young people on the history of Black Agriculture, and Black Farmers before and after slavery- because there is a history before.

Let's teach young black children that agriculture is the foundation to all things - there is no culture without agriculture.

We can teach them that farming and agriculture is not just putting seeds in the ground, it’s not just harvesting it, its inclusive of everything in the food supply chain, and that everything around them comes from some source of farming- either it has been grown or mined- all within agriculture.

This not a urban vs. rural farming situation it’s an everyone everywhere situation - everyone everywhere needs to help save black farmers, and create some, no matter where you live.

So what now after Pigford?

Survival, Revival, and Expansion of the Black Farmer, I vote revival.

Pigford told us of the past, now we look to the future, and make sure that Black Farmers don't become extinct. We need to make sure that our farmers have the support, tools, customers, and know how to make farming and agricultural related activities a thriving business that anyone would want to go in, because it’s ours.

We need to make Black Farmers the now, and the future. We need to make sure we make existing farmers profitable and their farmer thriving, and create new farmers at the same time. However we need to act now. We are quickly running out of time, if the average age is 60, how many more years do we have for them to be farming- 3 years, 5 years, 10 maybe at the max. So in 10 years we could run out of Black Farmers.

If we stand by idle and allow that to happen, then the people who caused the reason for Pigford just won and we stood by as spectators. And I am no spectator! So all hands on deck- who's with me, the time is now, not tomorrow.

Do you have time to volunteer to pick some crop? Do you have time to help fill out a marketing plan? Do you have time to help with packaging, or transportation, or to sit in at a farmers market for a farmer? Do you have land that you don't use? Do you eat every day?

If you said yes then you can help save Black Farmers!

Will you join me?

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Tanikka Cunningham, is the Executive Director of Healthy Solutions a national nonprofit organization and has been working to assist black farmers to become profitable my distributing their goods through multiple distribution systems, while insuring that people of color have access to healthy and affordable foods.

Tanikka is also the only African American female ever to start, run, and operate a full line produce wholesale distribution company, where she sold 100,000 lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables a day to military, schools, prisons, and businesses. Her produce distribution company had contracts worth over 6.5 million a year.

Tanikka Cunningham
Executive Director
Healthy Solutions
Office: 888-415-2667x 702
Fax: 877-349-0272
email: tcunningham [at] healthysolutionsgroup.org