Thomas Daschle: “minority farmers have worked America's soil throughout our history. And while these farmers have done so much to advance…”

“minority farmers have worked America's soil throughout our history. And while these farmers have done so much to advance American agriculture, they have experienced intense and often institutionalized discrimination in the process. From the broken promise of ``40 acres and a mule'' during Reconstruction, to the discrimination inherent in many of the New Deal agriculture programs, to the first and second great migrations--during which so many left the land, never to return--the history of minority farmers in America has often been a history of hardship and struggle. Our Nation has seen the result of that hardship in the dwindling number of minority farmers, and the dwindling acreage of minority farms. In 1920, blacks owned 14 percent of our nation's farms. Today there are only 18,000 black farmers, representing less than 1 percent of all farms. Hispanics--who make up such a large share of farm labor--account for a mere 1 rac{1}{2}\ percent of all farm operators. For Native Americans, that number is half of 1 percent. Perhaps most saddening is that the United States Department of Agriculture--the agency which was founded by Abraham Lincoln to be ``the people's Department'' has often been part of the problem.”