Judge Orders USDA to Restore $127 Million in Grants to Black Farmer Organizations

A federal court has restored $127 million in USDA grants that had been stripped from Black farmer organizations earlier this year, offering relief to groups like Sharon Mallory's 2020 Farmers Cooperative.

In March, the USDA terminated the funding, claiming the awards were "discriminatory based on diversity, equity and inclusion and wasteful spending." The money came from the Biden-era Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program, which awarded $300 million to 50 projects addressing historic land loss among farmers of color.

The termination devastated grantees. Mallory's cooperative, which had promised equipment, land purchases, and food access for its community, couldn't fulfill its commitments to farmers.

Organizations were forced to cut staff, end programs, and divert resources. As Mallory said in the lawsuit, "the grant termination has undone 2020 Farmers Cooperative's long-term work in building trusting relationships, which led us to apply for the grant, and we must now find new ways to get back to where we were reputationally." That loss of trust emphasizes why these programs matter beyond dollars: Black farmers have long faced systemic barriers to land and capital, and initiatives like this were designed to rebuild relationships eroded over generations.

On June 30, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell ordered USDA to reinstate the grants, ruling that "the terminations of their individual grants were likely contrary to statute, that they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of relief, and that the balance of equities and public interest favor preliminary injunctive relief." She added, "these grant terminations are preliminarily vacated."

Hannah Wolf, a FarmSTAND attorney representing the plaintiffs, framed the ruling as part of a pattern: "the court has consistently recognized that USDA has an obligation to assist all farmers and ranchers. It cannot diminish services to certain farmers by invoking phrases like 'illegal DEI.'"

Twenty-four organizations, including groups like the Kansas Black Farmers Association, Center for Heirs' Property, and NDN Collective, joined the suit. The case highlights the ongoing fight to ensure Black farmers retain access to land, capital, and support essential to their survival and to correcting historic inequities in American agriculture.

Link: Capital B News