by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

In our last article, "’Snake’" has been
served", we brought you the testimony of Mr. Eddie Slaughter as he spoke on September 27th
at the forum called "Is There A Future for African Americans in Agriculture" during the
Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Weekend. Also on that panel was Mr. Eddie Wise, a
Black farmer from North Carolina with experience in aquiculture. He presented to the audience some
of the changes and innovations that he was making to survive in the new agricultural environment of
low commodity prices. In particular he talked about growing talapia, a type of freshwater fish. He
said that there was a large potential market for talapia but right now he had to make some
production improvements because his fish had been "marked" for taste
discrepancies.

Immediately the author wondered, who does the taste testing? In the author’s experience with
farming in Georgia, the horror of carrying your product to market and waiting on white people to
stick a grade on it, then cut the price on your product based on their grading caused me to have
great empathy for Mr. Wise. The joke in farming is that a farmer must do everything 100% correct,
then he has 50-50 chance of making a profit. For a Black farmer those chances may further depend on
the mental state of white folks the day that he takes his product to market. Supply-demand and
racism must be factored into any equation that determines the price that the Black farmer expects
to receive.

The farmer is a slave to his crop from the time that he starts preparing the land until the day
that it goes to market. For most crops you are talking about a 3 to 5 month period that a farmer
must work and be eternally vigilant. One year we were growing watermelons and left the farm to
attend a one day meeting in Atlanta. When we got home that evening, every one of our watermelons,
that were due to be harvested a few weeks later, had a hole in it due to crows. We had put up all
types of devices to scare the crows away, but each morning we would have to ride out to the
watermelon patches to scare them away ourselves. The one morning that we did not do it, we lost all
the melons. This is the type of battle that farmers have to wage everyday.

It is almost impossible to farm and then fight off the farm for justice. And this is why the
Black farmers could be sold out by a "Snake" in the Reparations’
Grass, Alexander Pires. After all of the production struggles that a farmer has to put up with,
he has to deal with racists who are organized on a local and national level to take his farm, and a legal system that provides no justice for the Black and the poor.

The next day the author went to another workshop entitled "Agriculture in Global
Development". In this forum speakers talked about the great opportunities that exist in
agricultural development in Africa and trade with Africa. The speakers admonished Black farmers for
not broadening their horizons and looking to the "global market".

However, to participate in the global market you must have the ability to transport a low
valued, bulky, heavy and perishable product in shipload quantities. Now a ship holds 50,000 metric
tons. In terms of wheat it would take about 50,000 acres under cultivation to fill a ship.

Not too many individual farmers cultivate 50,000 acres. "Set up co-operatives" was one
of the suggestions put forward by the panel. In Terrell County Georgia 25 years ago there were 38
Black farmers. Now there are only two who collectively farm 900 acres. In the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s
when there were a lot of Black farmers in the South, there were a lot of "terrorists", Ku
Klux Klansmen, riding around burning up crops and setting fires to barns of those farmers who dared
to organize.

Fortunately, Mr. Ralph Page from the Federation of Southern Cooperatives was on the panel to
bring out the logistical problems of transportation and distance to markets faced by Black farmers.
Mr. Page also pointed out the low level of funding that is available for organizations trying to
help Black farmers. Mr. Page admonished the government agencies (USDA) and other donors for giving
out just enough funds for Black institutions to fight over, but not enough to address the deep
systemic problems that Black farmers face.

Taking this history and now the results of Pigford v. Glickman Consent Decree, the question
asked in our previous article still holds: "…is there a policy of the US to take away the
Black farmers’ land and bring the Asians over here and give them our land?"

Visit us at: http://www.muhammadfarms.com

Peace, Doc