Glenn Beck Attacks Launch of Muhammad’s Economic Blueprint
by the Nation of Islam Research Group (12/11/13)
The enemies of the rise of Black people are ruthless in attacking anyone who attempts to advance the independent economic development of Black people. In October of 2013 the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan launched a nationwide economic-development plan based on the Economic Blueprint of The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Since there is nothing in the Economic Blueprint that the enemies of Black people could attack without exposing their blatant racism and hatred for Black people, hatchet man Glenn Beck went after the character of the Honorable Minister Farrakhan in an article written by Becket Adams and posted on theblaze.com website on December 9, 2013, titled “Wait until you hear how many farm subsidies are going to groups in…the city of Chicago—Including one associated with Louis Farrakhan.” A portion of this article reads:
“A total of 930 entities in the Chicago area received farm subsidies between 2008 and 2011. And as for the Louis Farrakhan group: Three Year Economic Savings, Inc., which is listed at his home address, received approximately $103,529 between 2008 and 2011, making it the 12th highest farm subsidy recipient in the Chicago area.”
First of all, Adams & Becket do not define what “Chicago area” means. Is it a zip code area, city planning district area, police precinct area or just a narrowly defined “area” that suits their purpose?
The innuendo here is that Minister Farrakhan is personally getting $103,529 from the government. If you do not understand farming, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) farm programs, or the history of the relationship between the USDA and Black farmers, you can be taken aback at such “large subsidies going to a black farmer.” Oh, did I tell you that Minister Farrakhan has been a farmer since 1995? Now, since Minister Farrakhan has stated that we are going after land and farming, let us bring you up to date on the history of this struggle to get and retain land.
By 1910, Blacks owned 16 million acres of land, in spite of the mass violence called “lynching”—premeditated murder that was not even illegal according to federal law. Up until the 1930s, there was no federal law against lynching a Black person.
However, the Whites who owned land needed labor, which they no longer had or could depend on (as a result of Blacks leaving the South en masse). The U.S. government through research developed at the USDA and at colleges funded by USDA research grants invented labor-saving equipment and chemicals to replace labor. To pay for this equipment and increased production costs the government made low-interest loans available to White farmers and not Black farmers. Over time the Whites developed a competitive advantage that drove many more Black farmers off their land and their children into the cities.
This depopulation of the countryside and reduction of Black wealth was not happening fast enough. So in 1962 the business mogul-dominated Committee for Economic Development (CED), a government-sponsored think tank, outlined what they called “An Adaptive Approach,” in which they stated: “Net migration out of agriculture has been going on for 40 years, and at a rapid rate. Nevertheless, the movement of people from agriculture has not been fast enough…” The CED’s “adaptive approach” recommended that (1) Vocational agriculture courses in rural areas be scrapped, (2) Agricultural prices be substantially lowered and (3) Temporary income programs be instituted to protect the most “suited for survival.”
Of course, the farmers “suited for survival” were mostly white. But now even the White farmers were finding it hard to stay on the land as the costs for their inputs kept going up, while the prices for their outputs remained constant or even sometimes dropped.
Over the 28-year period from 1969 to 1997, the cost of fertilizer per acre had jumped from about $10 per acre to over $30 per acre. Petroleum costs had gone up from about $8 per acre to over $20 per acre. Chemical costs had skyrocketed from about $4 per acre to over $24 per acre. And land rent had gone up from $12 per acre to almost $50 per acre. While the farm inputs had blown up, the price that the farmer receives for grain crops had stayed basically constant, hovering between $3 and $4 per bushel. So the plan that the Committee for Economic Development put forward has been put into full effect. Farmers have faced a tremendous cost squeeze, even as they have been more productive on a per acre basis.
The government stepped in to give farm subsidies to selected farmers, ranging from as low as $5 per acre to almost $140 per acre. Yield information was distorted at the USDA local offices to ensure that Black farmers did not get government subsidies or insurance payments. On average, from 1982 to 1992, White farmers received $1,023 per acre in farm subsidies, while Black farmers received only $274 per acre. Since farmland prices in the 1980s ran about $1,000 per acre, the USDA essentially helped White farmers to buy another acre for each acre they already had. And of course the land that they bought was the acreage of distressed Black farmers. So now Black farmers own less than 4 million acres of land, a mere one-fourth of what they were able to amass by 1910, 45 years after slavery.
The mechanism used to discriminate against Black farmers was, and is, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency County Committee. This “Committee” of three White farmers in Terrell County, Ga., determines how federal USDA funds are disbursed in Terrell County. This process takes place in every county of the United States. Now, Glenn Beck’s article talks about the Three Year Economic Savings, Inc., which owns and operates Muhammad Farm, the 1556-acre farm in Terrell County, Ga. Even though Mr. Beck would prefer to have our attention on Chicago, the real comparisons should be made in Terrell County, where this farm resides. This almost sixteen hundred-acre farm is large by Black farm standards, but very small compared with the White farms in Terrell County and Southwest Georgia.
To make our comparisons we went to the “EWG Farm Subsidy Database.” The Environmental Working Group’s website provides a list of the top recipients of USDA farm subsidies in the U.S. Farming subsidies received by farms in Terrell County, Ga., totaled $89,499,000 from 1995–2012. The Three Year Economic Savings, Inc. (Muhammad Farms) received $108,398 during this time period. However, when we compare this with other farms in Terrell County, we find that the Nation’s farm is 146th on the list of those who received funds during this same time period. In fact, the top recipient in Terrell County is none other than the Chairman of Terrell County Board of Commissioners, Wilbur Gamble, who received through his two entities, “Wilbur Gamble” and “Gamble Farms, Inc.,” a total of $4,283,199. Wilbur Gamble has used the USDA programs to gain wealth and power in Terrell County and has used that power over a 40-year period to block any type of economic development entering this county that might provide alternative employment to Blacks who work on his and other “good-old-boy” plantations in the county. In fact, there were 20 farms in Terrell County that received over $1,000,000 and 57 farms that received over $500,000—all white. So in other words, what Minister Farrakhan has taught us is true: this system believes that the Black man should receive NOTHING, not even if he is entitled to it. Even though our farm in Georgia does not receive anything like our White neighbors, we are providing decent employment for county residents and shipping produce to 8 states each year and whole wheat flour to 40 cities.
Black people pay billions of dollars in taxes and the USDA gives out billions of dollars in farm subsidies to White farmers, but somehow Black farmers are still supposed to receive NOTHING. And if a Black farmer receives anything, we as Black people are supposed to feel ashamed and therefore not back the Nation’s Economic Blueprint. Mr. Beck and his ilk believe that it is wrong for Black farmers to receive the government subsidies that the White farmers receive in the millions of dollars, yet they want to prevent Black people from pooling their resources under the guidance of Minister Farrakhan and do something for themselves. Mr. Beck, you are proving that what we have written about you—in articles like “Glenn Beck: The Fusion of Lies and Racism”—is all true. We see that your mindset can truly be seen as the mind of a devil.
Shame on you, Mr. Beck: Go after the real thieves and leave God’s man alone as he works to redeem a race of people that your people still hold in virtual servitude. Let My People GO!! And, my people, support our Nation’s Economic Blueprint to eliminate poverty and want by signing up on www.economicblueprint.org.
(Visit the Nation of Islam Research Group online at http://www.noirg.org and join the conversation on FaceBook.com/NOIResearch and Twitter @ NOIResearch.)