WASHINGTON, D.C. — Forty-year-old Travis Cleaver works as a full-time train conductor to pay the bills, but his real passion is farming.

What You Need To Know

  • The American Rescue Plan included about $5 billion in debt relief and other assistance for farmers

  • Black farmers make up less than 2% of all U.S. farmers

  • Travis Cleaver is skeptical about navigating the bureaucracy involved to access American Rescue Plan funds

  • The plight of Black farmers will be the subject of a House Agriculture Committee hearing this week in Congress

He grew up on a 19-acre tobacco farm in LaRue County and now runs his own 55-acre operation in Bonnieville. The American Rescue Plan included about $5 billion in debt relief and other assistance for farmers like him but he's skeptical about navigating the bureaucracy involved to access those funds. 

"I’ll believe it when I see it," Cleaver said.

For decades Black farmers have detailed how they have been shut out of loan programs by the Department of Agriculture but Cleaver credits the loan officer he most recently worked with for ushering him through a nearly year-long process.

"If it (wouldn't) have been for her, I wouldn’t have ever understood the paperwork because it was so difficult," he said.

The cattle and vegetable farmer believes the discrimination within the agency is more systemic.

"Do I think the USDA loans are designed for us to buy land? I do not. The protocol I had to go through to get the loan is not designed for Black people to just go out here and buy farms that are for sale by real estate agents. This loan is designed for people that own land to pass it down to the next generation. Well, if we don’t own any land, it’s hard for us to go through these loans," Cleaver said.

Black farmers make up less than 2% of all US farmers, according to the United States Department of Agriculture [USDA].

The plight of Black farmers will be the subject of a House Agriculture Committee hearing this week in Congress. Among those expected to testify is former USDA official Shirley Sherrod. She was pushed out of the Obama administration when her comments were taken out of context by conservative media, but she spent her entire career working to ensure rural farmers keep their land. Committee Chairman Rep. David Scott, (D-Ga.) said it's time for a reckoning that includes more support for Black farmers.

"All of this requires poignant and truthful acclamation of our history of how we got to where we are now and the condition of our Black farmers," Scott said.

Scott grew up on a rural farm in South Carolina before spending nearly 20 years in Congress. He said he's especially suited to oversee this effort.

"We were the pioneers of farming. We paid the price for that and all we are asking for now is to make sure there is no discrimination and that we have programs and policies in place to make sure that Black farmers will never be in the situation where we have to pay billions of dollars to pay their bills," Scott said.

There are just 600 Black-owned agricultural operations in Kentucky out of more than 76,000. Black farmers make up 1.4% of farm operators across the state, according to the latest data collected by the USDA in 2018.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Rep. David Scott as a Republican. He is a Democrat. The error has been fixed.

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