Recommendations for USDA on Executing Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities, Executive Order 13,985

The report argues that the USDA has a "long and painful history of racism and discrimination" that has led to massive land loss for Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian American farmers. To fulfill the mandates of Executive Order 13,985, the authors propose structural reforms including the creation of an Equity Action Plan, the establishment of an interagency task force, and the implementation of legislative set-asides for BIPOC groups. Key recommendations include increasing land access through subsidized sales and loans, improving protections for farmworkers against pesticide exposure and heat stress, and reforming the USDA's civil rights office to ensure prompt resolution of discrimination claims. The document also calls for reducing the funding of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) due to their disproportionate impact on communities of color and expanding eligibility for federal nutrition programs.

• The USDA has a legacy of systemic discrimination that caused the number of Black farmers to drop by 98 percent between 1930 and 1992.
• The authors propose an Equity Action Plan with specific 10-year targets: increasing the number of Black farmers by at least 50 percent and increasing the number of BIPOC participants in most USDA grant and loan programs by at least 100 percent relative to 2021 figures.
• The report recommends that the USDA call for legislative set-asides ensuring that 20 to 50 percent of program benefits flow to BIPOC stakeholders, aligning with the Justice40 Initiative.
• The USDA's civil rights office is criticized for inefficiency, with complaints taking an average of 1.3 years to process, often allowing the two-year statute of limitations to lapse.
• Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) disproportionately harm low-income communities and communities of color, yet they continue to receive significant USDA funding through programs like the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP).
• Farmworkers, who are predominantly immigrants, face hazardous conditions including pesticide exposure and heat stress, and are often excluded from USDA benefits due to non-citizen status.
• The report highlights a significant 'subsidy gap' in the crop insurance program, where the largest producers—who are overwhelmingly white—receive approximately 99 percent of the subsidies.
• The authors recommend that the USDA use the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to remedy past discrimination, noting that 99.5 percent of funds from the Trump-era Market Facilitation Program went to white farm operators.
• To address food insecurity, which is twice as high for Black and Hispanic households as for white households, the report suggests expanding SNAP and WIC eligibility to all non-citizens and residents of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

APA

Earthjustice (2021). Recommendations for USDA on Executing Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities, Executive Order 13,985. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/earthjustice_et_al_recommendations_racialequityeo.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Recommendations for USDA on Executing Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities, Executive Order 13,985. 2021. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/earthjustice_et_al_recommendations_racialequityeo.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=Recommendations for USDA on Executing Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities, Executive Order 13,985 |date=23 June 2021 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/earthjustice_et_al_recommendations_racialequityeo.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2021recommendations, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Recommendations for USDA on Executing Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities, Executive Order 13,985}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/earthjustice_et_al_recommendations_racialequityeo.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }