Hey Carrie Ann: The stat of Black farmers is interesting, especially given the prominence of them in urban farming. The last farming community I worked in was very Hispanic, for multiple generations. People with the last name of Zimmerman speaking fluent Spanish. And so, so much of Farm TikTok is gay.

ugh i hope they go out of business

Here's their statement if you don't want to go over to Twitter

Unfortunately, they just bought up a competitor in my area and have a lock on the market for at least an hour in each direction of me.

Famously, there are no gay people in rural America, and certainly no POC

Haven’t looked at updated stats for awhile, but I believe a few years ago, they showed that ~1% of the US workforce works on/runs a farm, and only ~1% of them are black people. (No idea on lgbtqia+ stats.) Betting TSC is banking on majority of white customers being ignorant bigots.

That second number, btw, is almost entirely due to decades upon decades of the USDA doing everything it can to undercut black farmers in support of white ones. There have been minor improvements, but reform gets kneecapped all the time.

The stat of Black farmers is interesting, especially given the prominence of them in urban farming. The last farming community I worked in was very Hispanic, for multiple generations. People with the last name of Zimmerman speaking fluent Spanish. And so, so much of Farm TikTok is gay.

Really good Reveal episode about the USDA’s history of mistreating black people. Grandpa and I listened to it on the road when it first aired and he was shaken, bc he’d had his own lifetime of struggles around here but never knew how bad it was for others. (Ep re-aired 2021 w updates)

Losing Ground - Revealrevealnews.org Why do Black families make up less than 1% of American farmers?

Regarding farm TikTok and such: Can’t remember where I read/listened, but I know there’s been a somewhat uprise in young people buying small plots to do eco-conscious farming. Personally would love if we broke up some of the biggest agribusiness land ownerships.

Where I am it’s Hmong farmers, doing truck farming. We have a giant farmer’s market here, but it doesn’t make a dent. My mom’s people farmed not far north of this place, and I learned about it years ago. beltmag.com/wisconsin-bl...

Wisconsin’s Black Farming Traditionbeltmag.com Since the mid-1800s, agriculture has created a path to agency and freedom for Black people in Wisconsin.

NPR had a story about USDA subsidies and Black farmers not getting them. must have been like 15 or 20 years ago i think 😳

Yep. In the Reveal ep, they cover one farmer who basically had to watch hundreds of little piglets die bc usda wouldn’t loan him money for their shelter, but gave money to his neighbor. And iirc, they tried to drive him off his land, too, via procedural bs.

and the neighbor was probably already a multimillionaire and definitely white.

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