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January 23, 2005

Minority farmers accuse USDA of discrimination

By Shannon Dininny
The Associated Press

WAPATO, Wash. - Unpicked Braeburn, Fuji and Gala apples hung from otherwise bare trees, as a crisp wind blew through the 12-acre orchard Rogelio Mendoza has owned and labored in since 1988.

Thousands of dollars in debt and in danger of losing his farm, Mendoza was too broke last fall to harvest his crop. He grudgingly decided to sell the farm.

Now, Mendoza hopes the buyer, also a Mexican immigrant, has better luck getting a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture - before Mendoza loses the orchards entirely.

And he refuses to shoulder the blame for that loss.

Mendoza and six other Washington state farmers, including the prospective buyer, recently joined a nationwide lawsuit accusing the U.S. Department of Agriculture of racial discrimination by denying or delaying crop loans.

``This is the only thing I have, so it feels like I'm dying,'' the spry 62-year-old Mendoza said, breathing deeply. ``They're killing me inside.''

Minority farmers have long alleged that the Agriculture Department discriminates against them. The complaints center on the agency's Farm Service Agency, which distributes purchasing and operating loans to small farmers who otherwise would not qualify for credit from a bank or other lender. The loans can be used to purchase land, equipment, livestock, feed, seed or supplies, or to make farm improvements.

Complaints were ignored for years after the Reagan administration dismantled the agency's civil rights enforcement program in the early 1980s. Congress later extended the statute of limitations on lawsuits, enabling farmers to file suit.

Thousands of black farmers responded by filing suit in 1997. In one of the largest class-action lawsuits ever filed, they alleged they were told not to bother applying for loans, were denied assistance in completing applications or faced long delays in payments.

In 1999, the department agreed to a landmark settlement in which individual farmers could receive payment if they could demonstrate they did not receive the same treatment as comparable white farmers.

However, still unresolved are three similar lawsuits filed by Latino, American Indian and female farmers. The cases have received scant notice so far, but that could change as they work their way through the courts this year.

The discrimination issue will be huge heading into 2005, said Kristine Dunne, an attorney representing 10 women officially named in the women's lawsuit.

Stephen Hill, an attorney representing about 300 Hispanic farmers, estimates the number of plaintiffs could be in the thousands.

``These practices are pretty uniform and occur throughout the country where minority farmers are discriminated against. The only difference is the ethnicity, race or gender of the farmers,'' Hill said.

Late last year, a judge refused to certify the lawsuits filed by Latinos and women as class-action cases. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in both cases plan to appeal.

Denying minority farmers the opportunity to file a class-action lawsuit constitutes a death knell for the case, Hill said.

``They won't have the resources to try these cases individually, and with respect to some of them, their potential damage recoveries are sufficiently small that it wouldn't be feasible for them to pursue on their own,'' Hill said.

The Agriculture Department conceded in the late 1990s that some farmers may have been victims of discrimination. But the agency's environment has changed, said Vernon Parker, the department's top civil rights official, who could not speak specifically to the lawsuits.

``In order to look forward, we have to address what the perception was and what reality was. We're not saying we're going to abandon any thought of the past, and if there was something there that needed to be changed, we're going to change it,'' Parker said.

For four years, English-speaking friends helped Mendoza complete the paperwork to apply for a loan, with little success, he said. The nonprofit Center for Latino Farmers finally stepped in to negotiate the process, but the move came too late to allow him to keep the farm.

Now, the 39-year-old immigrant trying to buy Mendoza's farm said he has seen his own problems with the system.

Marcelo Martinez Ramos grew up on a farm in Mexico, and moved to Washington's Yakima Valley in 1989 with plans to farm. With 15 years of experience working in orchards - picking fruit, pruning and thinning trees, managing pesticides and assisting with marketing and price negotiations - he thought qualifying for a loan would be easy.

But when Ramos applied for a loan to buy Mendoza's farm last year, he was denied. First, loan officers told him he needed to be farming full-time, he said.

Ramos works full time at a cable company to support his wife and five children, in addition to part-time work in the orchards.

When he reapplied, they told him he needed a college education. The Center for Latino Farmers again stepped in and negotiated the maze of paperwork.

``I don't know what's going to happen,'' Ramos said. ``Once I sign the papers, I'll believe it.''