The Land Stewardship Project needs you to take action to stand with emerging farmers — particularly Black farmers, Indigenous farmers, and farmers of color (BIPOC farmers).

Your state representative serves on the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee. On Thursday, March 21, this committee is considering legislation that would remove emerging farmers, including BIPOC farmers, from being prioritized within statutes governing Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and Rural Finance Authority (RFA) programs.

H.F. 4098 (Vang) and S.F. 5049 (Putnam) would replace the prioritization of “emerging farmers” with the prioritization of “limited-resource farmers” for The Good Acre’s LEAFF Program, Beginning Farmer Equipment and Infrastructure Grants, the Down Payment Assistance Program, the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit, technical assistance grants, and others.

This proposal is a reaction to a race-based lawsuit from an extreme California-based law firm, driving the Legislature to make state statute “race neutral.”

LSP and our allies who represent BIPOC and emerging farmers have significant concerns about this bill:

1. The development of this legislation has happened without the meaningful consultation of those most impacted by these proposed changes. LSP strongly values centering those most impacted by legislation in the legislative process — “nothing about us without us.” Emerging and BIPOC farmer organizations, as well as organizations instrumental in creating these programs, were not consulted in the crafting of this legislation and have been given little time and few opportunities to provide feedback.

2. The proposed definition of a “limited-resource farmer” needs additional development. It currently only includes people farming under a lease or other rental arrangement of
   no more than three years in duration (when the person leasing or renting the land is not
   related to the lessee or renter by blood or marriage) and farmers whose majority of annual farm product sales are direct sales to the consumer. This leaves out many BIPOC and emerging farmers, including farmworkers and aspiring farmers who have not rented land before, farmers who primarily sell to institutions, and established emerging farmers who still face significant barriers.

3. We need a full menu of options to legislatively respond to this lawsuit before pushing a proposal through that significantly changes MDA and RFA programs. LSP and our allies are in the process of compiling how other states have addressed lawsuits like this before, as well as consulting legal experts. We need time to determine the best path forward — not a quick fix that leaves people out of both the proposed legislation and the legislative process.

We need you to take action.

If you can, join us in-person at Thursday’s hearing (March 21), starting at 1 p.m., to demonstrate Minnesotans are paying attention to how our state shows up for BIPOC and emerging farmers! The hearing is located in the Basement Hearing Room of the State Office Building (100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard., St Paul, MN 55155). Learn more and RSVP here. Can’t join us? You can watch online here.

Whether or not you can join us on Thursday, please take just a few minutes to send an e-mail to your state representative. They need to hear from constituents like you. It’s easy for elected officials to ignore duplicative form messages, so please personalize your e-mail to include why this matters to you.

—Contact Your State Representative—

—Attend the Hearing—

All Minnesotans, and our farm and food system as a whole, benefit from getting more BIPOC and emerging farmers onto the land. Rather than allowing a California-based law firm to undermine Minnesota values and scare our elected officials, we have an opportunity to build upon our state’s reputation of being a leader in supporting BIPOC and emerging farmers.

Please take action however you can.