Creating Farming Opportunities for Black People, Indigenous People, and Other People of Color

The document argues that systemic racism has historically excluded BIPOC from land ownership and financial resources, which undermines the resilience of the US food system. It proposes a framework for increasing land accessibility, improving financial resources, enhancing infrastructure and information, and fostering BIPOC leadership to achieve a more sustainable and equitable agricultural sector.

• BIPOC are significantly underrepresented in US farm ownership despite their large share of the population; they operate less than 5 percent of farms and cultivate less than 1 percent of farmland, while a majority of the estimated 2.4 million farmworkers are people of color who do not own farms.
• Land security for Black farmers is severely threatened by 'heirs’ property'—land passed down without a will—which accounts for 41 percent to over 60 percent of Black-owned land and increases vulnerability to involuntary sale or seizure.
• BIPOC farmers face systemic financial disadvantages, including lower net cash incomes, fewer direct-to-consumer sales, and a disproportionately small share of USDA loans compared to White farmers.
• There is a significant gap in infrastructure and information access, with fewer BIPOC farmers having internet service and a history of inequitable service from public research institutions.
• To improve equity, the document recommends expanding support for 1890 (HBCUs), 1994 (Tribal Colleges), and Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges to ensure they have the same resources as the original 1862 land-grant institutions.
• The brief advocates for the development of 'incubator farms' to help immigrant and refugee farmers access land, citing the Hmong American Farmers Association in Minnesota and the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association in California as successful models.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2020). Creating Farming Opportunities for Black People, Indigenous People, and Other People of Color. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/leveling-the-fields.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Creating Farming Opportunities for Black People, Indigenous People, and Other People of Color. 2020. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/leveling-the-fields.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Creating Farming Opportunities for Black People, Indigenous People, and Other People of Color |date=May 2020 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/leveling-the-fields.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2020creating, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Creating Farming Opportunities for Black People, Indigenous People, and Other People of Color}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2020}, month = may, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/leveling-the-fields.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }