by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions,
stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and
Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the
University of Nebraska at Lincoln. An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central
South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation.

Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas this dry summer will never end up as pasta,
bread or beer. America’s "Bread Basket" is drying up and her farm land is cracking under
the two-fold forces of drought and 100 degree heat. So as the Constitution holds black men and woman
as 3/5ths of a human, this drought is scorching 3/5ths of the land.

Brad Rippey, a federal Agriculture Department meteorologist in Washington, said this year’s
drought is continuing one that started in the late 1990s. "The 1999 to 2006 drought ranks only
behind the 1930s and the 1950s. It’s the third-worst drought on record — period," Rippey
said.

According to the Agriculture Department, the hardest hit state, North Dakota last year led the
nation in production of 15 different commodity classes, including spring wheat, durum wheat, barley,
oats, canola, pinto beans, dry edible peas, lentils, flaxseed, sunflower and honey. While many of us
might not be able to find North Dakota on a map, her demise may force fat America to replace the
calls for "super-size me" and "where’s the beef" to "where’s the bread
and beans."

In the past America has used her great agricultural wealth for less than humanitarian ends. The
PL480 program which presented itself to the world as an altruistic give away program to supply
needed grains to the Third World was in fact and economic weapon used to destroy foreign economies.
Public Law 480 (PL 480) was passed by the US government in 1954 to get rid of agricultural surpluses
and serve American foreign interests. If a country faced famine, America would send in food if that
country aligned itself with America instead of Russia.

However, the timing of the PL 480 shipments could be devastating for the future of a country’s
local growers of those commodities. America would send in this free food at the same time when local
farmers were trying to sell their meager harvest to the consumers in the big cities. Eventually
these small farmers went out of business and joined the jobless hoards in the big cities of the
Third World.

This present great drought may permanently eliminate those surpluses, and run the last American
family farmers to the cities awaiting the ships from Brazil to bring them the grain for their
"daily bread". The wealthier American farmers have already left the "bread
basket" with the help of the American government and agricultural supply firms which sell farm
production inputs cheaper in South America. The United States is fast becoming a "Third
World" country, importing manufactured goods from China and now food from South America.

On May 3, 2004 the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned Bush to pull out of Iraq or suffer
the consequences. He warned all of us to watch the weather. We started doing that and noticed the
unprecedented number of major hurricanes that struck the shores of America. Five hit in 2004: Alex,
Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jean. The tracts of those hurricanes can be viewed in our article called
"The Hand of God: Hurricanes and Mighty Snow" at www.Muhammadfarms.com.

Evidently President Bush did not regard this unusual weather as any type of sign or indication
that he should pull out of Iraq. Instead he began to beat the war drums towards Syria and Iran. Then
Hurricane Katrina hit in August of 2005. The devastation was unprecedented and the level of disaster
preparedness and response was abysmal. Yet, Mr. Bush has "stayed the course".

Minister Farrakhan has likened Mr. Bush to the "Pharaoh" of the Bible. The
"Pharaoh" that confronted the Biblical Moses was struck by 10 plagues and yet "stayed
the course." This "Pharaoh" unexplainably sent his army into the Red Sea running
after Moses and his "rod", after personally witnessing the power of that "rod".
Here we are in 2006. The insurance companies and US Treasury are reeling behind the loses of Katrina
and now both are faced with the worse drought since the 1930s and ‘50s.

From July 17-19, 2006 Minister Farrakhan headed a fact finding delegation to uncover why would so
many Navajo be in poverty, while as a people they own 27,000 square miles of land. As we drove
through desert that was once farmland, we wondered what happened to the water.

Since 1965 the Peabody Energy Corp has operated a coal strip-mining operation in the Black Mesa
plateau on Navajo land. In 1974 Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., backed by a number of energy
companies pushed through the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act which expanded the reach of Peabody
Energy by running the Navajo and Hopi people off of their land.

Until this year Peabody Energy has been extracting over 3.3 million gallons of pristine, potable
water from the region’s sole-source aquifer every day to slurry coal 273 miles to Laughlin, Nevada
to the Mohave electric generation plant. As a result the local springs and streams have dried up and
the water level has decreased by as much as 100 feet.

But now if you stay tuned to the Weather Channel, you will see that over the last few weeks it
has rained somewhere in Arizona almost every day while America’s agricultural heartland is drying
up. President Bush not only ignores "scriptural prophecies", he continues to deny the
research findings of his own scientists. Bush has stated that he does not believe in "global
warming", even though the average world temperature is creeping up each year, the oceans are
rising and America is being scorched by 100 degree plus weather even in North Dakota.

Will Black America go down with the modern Pharaoh? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and now the
Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan have warned Black people to "…Come out of her, my people,
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and ye receive not of her plagues."

Could it be that Black America would rather eat itself sick in its enemy’s kitchen and burn in
a "house on fire", than accept that it made a mistake by rejecting the calls for
separation from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? Is pride better than life? Will Black people fall
through the cracks as America’s ground bakes in the oven of retribution?

According to a Law.com article entitled "A Tough Row", "A lawyer came to the aid
of black farmers in a landmark civil rights suit. Now, he’s the one in need of rescue." The
June 12th article goes on to quote Judge Paul Friedman, the judge presiding over the Pigford vs.
Glickman class action law suit as saying: "Counsel’s negligent handling of the final stages
of this case…runs the risk of jeopardizing counsel’s prior accomplishments."

This article continues: "When he endorsed the consent decree, Judge Friedman excoriated the
federal government for breaking its historical promises to its black citizens. But in an April 27
order, he blasted Pires for failing to meet court deadlines for processing farmers’ claims. The
lawyer’s ‘negligent handling of the case,’ Friedman wrote, ‘borders on legal malpractice.’"

"Friedman said he would fine Pires for every day after May 15 that Pires’ work remains
unfinished. The fines are being assessed at $1,000 a day until June 15."

The judge asked Robert Weiner, a former D.C. Bar president, to issue an emergency call to the
city’s major law firms to "pick up the slack by pursuing a significant number of the claims
on a pro bono basis."

In January according to this article, Judge Friedman ruled favorably on Pires’ request for $31
million in fees. Pires has asked his snake, I mean lawyer friends, to take from him the much more
complicated and burdensome claims known under the consent decree as "Track B" cases.

I personally know about some of these "Track B" cases because I was asked to be an
expert witness on a number of them as an agricultural economist. My job was to determine the amount
of economic damages that these farmers suffered because of discrimination by the USDA. I had to
sign a form (gag order) that I would not talk about any specific case, however in general the
problem stems from the fact that I have proven too much damages to these farmers and the government
does not want to pay. So now they are taking these cases away from the Black law firms that Al
Pires got to front for him and giving these cases to some of his snake, I mean lawyer friends, to
sell these farmers out.

I think that I will end on this note and let the reader think about what has happened and what
is in store for "Reparations" as long as Al Pires and his friends are on board.

Peace, Doc

(For archived articles click The Farmer Newsletter)

(For history of the lawsuit click Perfect Crime)

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

After World War II with the European countries in economic ruin, the United States agreed to send
aid to Europe if the countries would meet and decide on what they needed. The European Economic
Recovery Program called the "Marshall Plan" began in April of 1948 and over a three year
period, until 1951, America sent $13 billion in food, machinery and other products to Europe.

When will Black people "meet and decide" on what we need? I guess the first question
should be: "When will Black people wake up and realize that we are in economic ruin?"
Statistics show that one half of Black men from the ages of 16 to 64 do not have a job in New York
City. And according to an National Public Radio report, one out of four Black children in New York
City suffer from some form of asthma. Nationally at least twenty-five percent of Black males are now
in the "Correctional Population": in prison, on parole or probation, or awaiting
sentencing.

I thought that Blacks fled the South and went up North for jobs and better living conditions?
Fifty percent unemployment, twenty-five percent asthma and that cold jail cell should tell us that
the "dream" is over. The fifty percent who have jobs should send as much money as they can
to the Three Year Economic Savings Program, buy a one-way bus ticket for the other fifty percent and
send them packing back down South so that we can start over again as a people.

Remember we had over 16 million acres of land, businesses, hospitals, insurance companies and
schools in 1910. Then the KKK burned and terrorized us out of our properties down South, while their
northern cousins lured us into the northern cities to become cheap labor in the white man’s
economic expansion project. Now that we have served him well, he has kicked us to the curb,
literally, where we lay there selling dope, frequenting prison and dying a slow dishonorable death.

In 1964 the Honorable Elijah Muhammad spelled out what I call the "Elijah Plan" in
chapter 78 of "Message to the Black Man" entitled "AN ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT". He
writes:

"The following blueprint shows the way:

1. Recognize the necessity for unity and group operation (activities).

2. Pool your resources, physically as well as financially.

3. Stop wanton criticisms of everything that is black-owned and black-operated.

4. Keep in mind — jealousy destroys from within.

5. Observe the operations of the white man. He is successful. He makes no excuses for his
failures. He works hard in a collective manner. You do the same.

If there are six or eight Muslims with knowledge and experience of the grocery business — pool
your knowledge, open a grocery store — and you work collectively and harmoniously, Allah will bless
you with success." (p. 174)

THE THREE YEAR ECONOMIC SAVINGS PROGRAM was established by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1964
as the major program initiative of the "Elijah Plan". This program asked black people to
pool their resources by contributing $10 a month to help fight against poverty, want, unemployment,
abominable housing, hunger and nakedness of the 30-40 million black people in America.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan re-established this program in October 1991. Though this
program and other contributions we purchased 1600 acres of farm land in Georgia, however we need
more. In October of 2001 the Three Year Economic Savings Program was incorporated as a 501-C3, not
for profit corporation. This insures that your contributions are tax deductible and the properties
bought with those contributions will be owned by the corporation and not individuals.

The Program’s name might imply that it was to last for only three years, like the Marshall Plan
after W.W.II. However an "Elijah Plan" for economic development must be an ongoing program
until the problems of our people are eradicated.

As an economist, the following words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad points out the difficulty
in following this simple program:

"It is very hard for an economist to plan a wise program and see his plans carried out,
because the so-called American Negroes’ economics are controlled by the white man…Do not become
extravagant spenders like the rich, who own the country and everything in it. It is sheer ignorance
for us to try to compete in luxury with the owners." (p. 195)

When will Black people come together and evaluate the "Elijah Plan"? The Honorable
Elijah Muhammad writes: "I have set before you a program, according to the Divine Supreme Being
and His Prophets. You have neither produced a better program nor anything to equal it." (p.194)

Forty years (1964-2004) have passed since he made this statement and no other program has come
forward. Instead of the "Elijah Plan" we chose social integration with promises of
"affirmative action." We "integrated" with poor whites, left our businesses and
institutions behind and built the fortunes of K-mart, Wal-mart, McDonalds, Burger King and Holiday
Inn. The corporations offered a few window dressing jobs to our "Talented Tenth", lured
them to the other side of town and got them to invest their savings in the "stock market"
which eventually collapsed. Now corporations are downsizing, out-sourcing and dropping our
"Talented Tenth".

Why have we not followed the "Elijah Plan"? Is it because he had only a third grade
education and we do not believe that he was divinely taught? We doubted him, yet we allow the white
man’s concepts of economic "rationality" to dictate both our economic and moral
behavior.

I have a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics and through all of my study and training, I have yet to
find a better solution to raise black people out of economic ruin. In fact, not only have I found
the "Elijah Plan" to be sound, but I have discovered that the underlying assumptions of
many of the white man’s economic theories are false. If the assumptions are wrong, then the stacks
of postulates and formulas that he uses to predict and manage his economies will not work. However,
he has been able to cover his mistakes by exploiting more of the blood, sweat and mineral resources
of dark skinned people all over the world. He also relies on the willingness of his white brethren
at home to suffer economic losses for the cause of white supremacy. And when all else fells, he just
starts a war.

In the future we will point out some of the holes in the white man’s economic theories while
explaining the wholeness of the "Elijah Plan". In the meantime, send your tax deductible
contributions to:

The Three Year Economic Savings Program

4855 South Woodlawn Ave.

Chicago, Ill 60615

(For archived articles click The Farmer Newsletter)

(For history of the lawsuit click Perfect Crime)

Main
Page

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

There is this commercial for deodorant whose theme is “never let them see you sweat.”
We are now 10 years out from the Million Man March and headed back to DC as the Millions More
Movement. I have heard the question asked as to why should we go back to DC? This is a valid
question if the first march had no effect or the issues that it addressed have been solved. Looking
at the condition of the black community and the number of black men unemployed and or in jail, it is
fair to say that problems of our people have not been resolved.

The other issue is whether the first MMM had a positive effect on the black community and caused
our enemies to react. Minister Farrakhan has pointed out many positive effects of the march
including more black men registering to vote, black men joining churches and organizations, black
men taking better care of their families and more black orphans being adopted by black families. The
crime rate has gone down in a lot of our major cities even though the number of black people being
incarcerated has increased.

“Come let us deal wisely with them” is what the Pharaoh of the Bible said to his
advisors in terms of their fear of the growth and power of the Children of Israel. Part of that
dealing wisely is to not let black people know that the MMM made the modern Pharaoh
“sweat”. White people teach that life is series of co incidents. This is to keep you from
analyzing the cause and effect relationships that you experience but are made num to. The very last
thing they want you to believe is that a black leader can make them react to his moves instead of
him asking permission to move.

The MMM began to have an effect on the government of America the very night that Minister
Farrakhan announced it at the first Men’s Only meeting held in New York City at the 149^th
Street Armory. That very night, January 24, 1994, the US Senate went into special session and
declared that when 5 or more young black men were hanging together they could be labeled as a
“street gang”. So as Minister Farrakhan was going around the country getting black men to
unite, the government labeled this unifying effort as recruiting “gang members”. So as it
was during slavery in both the “slave states” down South and the so-called “free
states” in the North, it is still unlawful for more than five black people to get together
unless a white person is there to monitor their activities.

President Clinton in his State of the Union Address on January 25, 1994, the day after the
announcement of the MMM, outlined his strategy to be “tough and smart” (deal wisely)
against “crime” by announcing the “three strikes you’re out” and “put
away for good” crime bill. The next year on February 10, 1995 the Clinton administration
introduced legislation whose language was moving towards asserting that certain crimes, such as
robbing tourists, committed by street gangs in the ghettoes of America may be classified as
terrorism. This bill also gave the FBI authority to investigate political groups and causes at will
similar to the now infamous “Cointelpro”. Thanks to the fear generated by “911”,
the government has put into play the new “Patriot Act” and has developed the new language
of “terroristic threat”, that gives the police the authority to put a black man in jail
for just looking at a policeman in a “threatening” manner.

On the economic end the government laid in wait for us like a “snake in the reparations
grass.” As 2 million black men descended on the DC Mall, the government foresaw the demand for
reparations by black people for past wrongs. Therefore the government reacted by making Alexander
Pires, a former Justice Department lawyer, the lead attorney in the black farmers’ fight against
the USDA in 1998. The government’s plan was to take over black people’s demand for reparations
by planting a “white savior” at the head of the movement and divert it towards a
meaningless quest for a few crumbs for individuals and not repair the damage to the
“class” or group. The first step taken by Mr. Pires was to move the fight of the farmers
from stopping foreclosures and getting their land back that was taken by the USDA to getting $50,000
each.

The consent decree was devised so that most of the farmers who owed the USDA were denied in the
lawsuit and thereby still under the gun of foreclosure. However, the media did not cover the black
farmers’ cry against the lawsuit, but instead touted the success of Mr. Pires in getting the
largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history, thereby shooting him to the front of the pack of
lawyers that might present the U.S. government with a general reparations lawsuit. However, through
the efforts of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA) and www.MuhammadFarms.com,
Mr. Pires was exposed as the “Snake in the Reparations Grass” and summarily booted off of
the reparations “dream team”.

Minister Farrakhan is now deeply involved in the Reparations movement. He is emphasizing that
land be a part of any reparations package and that black leadership develop a 10 year plan for the
“total liberation” of black people in America. This 10 year plan is to be implemented by
black people with or without government support.

Minister Louis Farrakhan made me the manager of Muhammad Farms in 1995. This is a 1556 acre farm
in Georgia that was bought at the end of 1994 using funds raised through the Three Year Economic
Savings Program. This program and even the land that was bought was a reenactment of the strategy
used by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in the 1960’s to jump start a people towards nation
building. Now Minister Farrakhan was doing the same. On top of this Min. Farrakhan was calling the
million man “army” to march with him on Washington to make demands of the government.

The enemy could see the handwriting on the wall. Allah (God) fixed circumstances such that the
government could not stop the “army” from marching. However, the government got busy to
ensure that the Nation of Islam would not be able to feed that army when they got home. In
particular, the government removed almost all of the subsidy programs that kept the prices of the
major agricultural commodities above the cost of production. In the past these subsidies were given
to white farmers like “welfare cheese”, but denied to Black farmers.

However, since the Nation of Islam was now farming and had expertise that could access the
government programs, the government decided to wipe out all the programs even though it would
destroy most of the white family farmers as well.

The prices of corn, wheat, cotton and soybeans plummeted after the “Freedom to Farm”
bill was passed in 1996. The graph shown below describes how prices for these commodities fell from
their high marks in 1995 and 1996 to almost half these amounts by the year 2001. We could just
accept this as a “co incidence”, but I am going with Minister Farrakhan again in 2005 to
push up on the beast and watch him “sweat” again. I wonder how high will gas and diesel
prices get by October 15th? Hmmmm…

Even though I suffer as a farmer under this cost/price squeeze put on by the government, I am
comforted by understanding the cause and effect relationship by our push towards and at the MMM in
1995 and the government’s response since that time. The Holy Qur’an admonishes the believer to
persevere because when the believer suffers, know that the enemy is also suffering even though he
may never let you see him sweat.

by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

First of all let me apologize for the absence of new articles in the Farmer Newsletter. It is
very difficult to grow crops, harvest them and then drive them across country.

From the end of June through July I have personally taken produce to Cincinnati (Oh), Atlanta
(GA), Columbus (GA), Macon (GA), Montgomery (Al), Charlotte (NC), Greensboro (NC), Winston-Salem
(NC), Richmond (VA), Washington (DC), Baltimore (MD), Newark (NJ), Cleveland (Oh) and New York City.
My wife and I have entertained visitors who came to the farm and picked up their produce from
Columbia (SC), Jacksonville (Fl), Tallahassee (Fl), Newark (NJ), Atlanta (GA) and Detroit (MI).
Newark and Detroit came on tour buses. Detroit brought the Muhammad University of Islam students and
supporters, while Newark brought the Junior Fruit of Islam and guests.

We have transported watermelons, squash, okra and sweet corn. Over this month and a half time
period we logged over 15,000 miles on our new Isuzu refrigerated truck. Some of these trips took
over 20 hours one-way.

Why did we do it? We had no choice. Our first tractor trailer sized shipment was to be to Newark
near the end of June. We thought we had an independent trucker lined up to move our melons to
Newark. However, when I returned from delivering produce to Cincinnati, I learned on the Tuesday
before the weekend of the planned delivery, that the first trucker could not do it. Therefore, I
consulted another trucker on that same day. Initially he said that he would be glad to do it, but
then called me back the next day saying that he did not have adequate licensing to go into New
Jersey. Washington, DC was the closest that he could get to Newark.

Okay, I consulted another trucker on Wednesday who said that he could make the trip but could not
do it for $1 per mile that we had quoted Newark. Okay, then I agreed to pay $1.30 per mile. This
moved the transportation cost from $1050 to $1450. To cover the extra transportation costs I called
Mosques on the route up to Newark from the farm to see if collectively they could purchase another
300 melons so that I could cover the extra transportation costs without increasing the wholesale
price of the melons or reducing our returns here at the farm.

Okay, I got a bite from Washington, DC and Greensboro, NC who said that it was short notice but
they could do it. Now this was Thursday and we had already picked about 800 melons. I had hoped to
pick the other 200 melons on Friday and have my workers come in early Saturday morning to load the
truck so that it could get to Newark by the designated time on Sunday afternoon. But now we had to
pick 500 hundred instead of 200.

We had over 300 picked and under the shed before a massive rainstorm hit and there was no way to
keep picking. I let the workers go home. However, the storm soon subsided and I figured out another
way to get into the wet field and get the remaining melons out. (All Praises are due to Allah)
However, I had to pick the last melons by myself.

When I finally got back to the house, it was past dark, but I had not heard from the trucker as
to what time he would be at the farm on Saturday morning. I finally reached him and then he tells me
at 11:30 P.M. on Friday night that he did not have a trailer that he could pull to Newark. The melon
purchaser in Newark had already sent a deposit for the shipment, so I wanted to "make my word
bond".

I decided that I would get back in touch with the trucker who could only go to Washington, DC. I
figured that what I would do was to get him to drop some melons off in Greensboro and the rest in
DC. I would follow him up with our truck which could only haul about 500 melons and use it to
shuttle melons from DC to Newark.

So I called this brother up and advised him of my plans and to see if he could now take the
melons to DC. He said that he could not do it because he had a problem with his trailer. I kept my
cool and asked him if he knew of anyone else that I could call to get my melons shipped. He gave me
the number to another trucker. I called this brother and he first said that he could do it and he
would call me back.

I tried to get some sleep but woke up about 2:30 Saturday morning realizing that I had not heard
anything from the trucker. I called him back and he then tells me that he could not do it. What? I
thought. However, I kept my cool and lay on my couch and thought. What I decided to do was drive to
Newark myself and take 500 melons then go back later with the next 500. The trip to Newark was 20
hours including a 3 hour rest that I took on the way up.

I turned around from that trip and was back in the fields picking by Tuesday morning, then drove
to Greensboro Wednesday night to deliver the 300 melons that they had ordered. The following
Saturday I drove back up to New Jersey with another 500 melons. From then on I decided not to depend
on independent truckers.

In my soliciting their services I had made a tactical error in telling them that we would be
shipping melons in bulk instead of in bins. Bulk shipment of melons requires that you hand load and
unload each melon. With bins you load up each bin then forklift it into the trailer. When you get to
the drop point, another forklift is used to get the melons out and put them in the warehouse. Using
this process saves a lot of time for the trucker, because he does not have to wait on a team to
arrive. Even with a team of men there, it would take at least 2 hours to load, then 2 hours to
unload a full shipment of melons. Using the bins and forklift, it could take as little as 30
minutes. Time is money and the trucker wants to move on to his next load as soon as possible. Plus
with bulk handling he has to worry about the straw that you have to put in to cushion the melons,
which you do not need for the bins.

Well you might say, why don’t we use these bins? Well we do. However, when we get to our
destination at a Mosque or Study Group or a small co-op, they do not have a forklift to get the bins
out of the truck. Therefore they must dig up a crew to unload the trucks by hand.

What I am trying to present to you, is that we do not have the infrastructure in place in our
cities to handle a tractor trailer load of anything. We do not have refrigerated warehouses, we do
not have any type of warehouses, we do not have forklifts, we do not even have a dock that the
trailer can be backed up to that would make it possible for a hydraulic hand jack to lift and roll
the bins out to our platforms. In other words we are so far behind that we can not even be helped.
Therefore I decided to put the strain on myself of moving the produce until we are ready to
participate in modern agribusiness.

by Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad

The American people are not being spiritually fed, intelligently led nor
moving with a clear vision ahead. Thus most citizens are not participating in
the political process. In the 1996 presidential election only 50% of the
registered voters voted. There was still a large number of Black, Latino and
poor white people who were not even registered to vote. Soon with the increased
privatization of what heretofore were public utilities and services, elected
officials will have nothing to govern except disgruntled working class slaves
and an untouchable share holding elite.

The year 2,000 election could be the pivotal point in the evolving
relationship between the government and the governed. Heretofore the Nation of
Islam as exemplified in the Million Man March has stressed self-determination
and self-improvement as the basis for community development oftentimes outside
of the political process. Similarly, Black family farmers over the last 60 years
have concentrated on improving their productivity and not on the structure of
the market system in which they must operate. It has become clear that what the
politicians do on a local, state and national level directly affects the
parameters of the system in which individuals, families and businesses must work
to receive the benefits of their labor and investments. The system through its
dispensing of rewards and punishments has negatively impacted the ability of
families to prosper and stay together. The destruction of Black communities can
be directly connected to the destruction of Black families.

It has also become clear that the politicians work for one of the two major
political parties and both parties work for the wealth contributed by the
special interest groups. No one works for the people. To better understand the
dichotomies under which we must choose let us introduce the "industry
paradigm" of America’s two party system. The Republicans, Reagan, Bush,
Dole etc., represent the defense industries, oil, banking, raw materials,
infrastructure or "Old Money". The Democrats, Carter, Clinton, Gore
etc., represent nuclear energy, telecommunications, Internet, new technologies
or "New Money". Black folk and even the vast majority of so-called
white people have "No Money" but a lot of votes. Therefore each of the
two parties get money from "Old Money" and "New Money" to
sell their candidates to "No Money". "No Money" gets
promises of jobs, old age benefits and no representation.

The Million Family March National Agenda Project represents the beginning of
what Minister Louis Farrakhan has christened the "Third Political
Force". The National Agenda will be presented to the world at the Million
Family March on October 16, 2000 where the national political candidates will be
invited to respond to this "People’s Agenda" in front of one million
families congregated in Washington, DC right before the November elections.

This development of a Third Political Force is a fundamental change for the
Nation of Islam’s approach to community development. The process of life is a
process of change. Minister Farrakhan announced in 1998 that America is the
"Promised Land" and that the Nation of Islam was not looking to leave
it anytime soon. So as responsible members of this country that once held us as
slaves, we must save her to save ourselves.

The first step in the development of the National Agenda has been completed
with its output being a 156 page document which covers "Public Policy
Issues, Analysis, and Programmatic Plan of Action: 2000-2008." The history
of the development of this document is outlined in its introduction by Dr.
Benjamin F. Muhammad, National Director, Million Family March.

"Thirty days after the Million Man March, on November 16, 1995,
delegates from throughout the United States gathered on the campus of Howard
University in Washington, DC for a meeting of the National African American
Leadership Summit. The Leadership Summit adopted a Ten-Point Action Program that
in part called for a National Political Convention to be held in 1996.

As a follow-up to the historic success of the Million Man March, the National
Hearing on Issues and Public Policy, held on the campus of Kennedy-King College,
Chicago, Illinois, July 26-27, 1996, produced The National Agenda 1996:
Executive Summary…

In September 1996, the National Political Convention was convened in St.
Louis, Missouri. The Convention was attended by thousands of delegates from
throughout the United States. The National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS)
and The Million Man March, Inc. co-sponsored the convention. The two major
results of the convention were the adoption of a document entitled The
National Agenda: Public Policy Issues and Action Items 1996-2001; and, the
tremendous increase in voter-turnout in the 1996 national elections,
particularly among Black men…

The Million Family March, therefore, will involve mobilizing and organizing
around the numerous public policy issues that impact the quality of life not
only for Black Americans but also for Hispanic, Native, Asian and Pacific
Islanders, Arab and White Americans."

The National Agenda is being disseminated to the heads of various political
and grass-roots organizations for their evaluation and input. The National
Agenda is divided into seven major sections: 1. Family, Morality and Public
Policy, 2. Political Empowerment, 3. Justice Issues, 4. Strengthening the
Family, 5. Quality of Life, 6. Economic Transformation and 7. International
Affairs. A website has been generated, MillionFamilyMarch.com, which holds the
entire body of The National Agenda along with the email address for comments and
suggestions.

We are involved in history in the making. The vision of Minister Louis
Farrakhan is for the million-plus me who attended the Million Man March (MMM)
five years ago to attend this family march with one or more members of their
family. Dr. Benjamin F. Muhammad is putting together a fact sheet on the
measurable changes in the Black community as a direct result of the MMM. Your
input would be appreciated.

Peace

(Contact information: http://www.millionfamilymarch.com or phone
1-877-MFM-7995 or 1-202-291-1119 and Dr. Ridgely Muhammad, drridge@bellsouth.net
)

By Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

We at Muhammad Farms know based on the teaching of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that America has
no intentions of allowing Black people to farm successfully and independently. We know from the
Honorable Louis Farrakhan that the “merchants of death” control the whole food industry
and intend to poison us. Therefore we strive to revitalize an independent agricultural system that
would provide safe and wholesome food to our people. However, as we strive to grow and distribute
food we are faced with market and logistical problems that the city consumer is not aware of.

People in the city see that food either comes from the grocery store or from the fast food
restaurant drive through window. They have no idea of how the food was grown, where it was grown,
how it was processed, nor how it got to the store or restaurant. Americans spend only 6% of their
income on food, while the rest of the world spends an average of 21.5% of their income for food. In
other words the rest of the world has to work almost four times as hard to eat as do Americans. So
Black Americans like White Americans basically take food for granted.

This year at Muhammad farms we were blessed to produce some superior watermelons in terms of
taste. We shipped some of our melons to Detroit, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Even though these
locations are about 1,000 miles from our farm in Georgia, some people who ordered the melons did not
consider the issue of transportation costs. They did not understand how the market works and how the
location of the major markets in comparison to the seasonal production areas affect the local
wholesale price and what the farmer receives.

I am an agricultural economist and nothing puts Black people to sleep like a bunch of numbers and
tables (smile). However, the language of mathematics is the method that an economist must use to
express his point and mathematics is the language that a farmer must understand if he plans to stay
in business. However, it seems that the only mathematics that the common consumer understands is the
price tag at the market. The consumer has no idea how his or her desire to get the most for the
least affects the long term survival of safe and reliable food systems. Cheap could get you killed.
In fact cheap food, and a system distorted by racists with the intent to commit genocide, has
produced a deadly food system and a dismal future for both farmers and consumers.

But let’s get down to the math. Watermelons are grown in many parts of the US, however because
of climatic conditions they can only be grown within a very narrow window in most parts. For
instance although watermelons can be harvested in late June and early July in Georgia, they can not
be grown and harvested in Indiana until late July or early August. Although watermelons are eaten
all across the US, the market price is set based on the major population centers such as
Chicago-Detroit and New York-New Jersey. The market price is based on truck load shipments of 2,000
melons per shipment. For this analysis we will make certain simplifying assumptions as illustrated
in Table 1: 1. the cost of producing/harvesting watermelons is $1.00 per
melon, 2. the farmer would like to get an “expected price” of $1.50 per melon, 3. Chicago
will be the destination, 4. the three production areas are Georgia, Tennessee and Indiana., 5.
transportation costs will be $1 per mile per shipment.

From July 1 to July 15 Georgia is the closest production point for the Chicago market. Therefore,
the combination of Georgia expected farm price ($1.50) and the transportation cost ($1,000 per
truckload) to the Chicago market set the “market price” to the broker at $2.00 per melon.
The consumer then pays and average of $5.00 per melon (Table 1). However,
starting around July 16 Tennessee melons start hitting the market. But Tennessee is only 500 miles
from Chicago, therefore the transportation cost drops in half and now even though the Tennessee
farmers still get $1.50, the broker can now pay a total of $1.75 per melon. The broker can still buy
melons from Georgia, but he will tell the Georgia growers that he can get ALL the melons he needs at
$1.75. So if the Georgia farmer wants to sell his melons he must accept $1.25 (Table
2).

As the watermelon season goes on Indiana farmers now get into the act, but they are only 200
miles from Chicago. They want $1.50 per melon and the broker is willing to pay that and pay the
transportation cost of ($200 per load) making his total cost of $1.60 (Table 1).
Now the Georgia farmer must accept an even lower farm price of $1.10 if he wants to sell melons in
Chicago.

Well why doesn’t the farmer go somewhere else? Chicago has set the “market price”, so
that is what the farmer can expect just about everywhere including his local supermarket chains. Why
doesn’t the farmer use his own truck? Using his own truck will not cut transportation cost per
melon even if he had such a truck. He still has to pay for the truck, pay gas, pay a driver and put
tires on the truck. Why doesn’t the farmer just sell his melons locally at the retail price? He
produces too many at one time for the local market to absorb.

In Table 2 we also show what happens when the Georgia farmer ships 1,000
melons instead of 2,000. His cost per truck load does not change, because he is not charged by the
weight but by the mileage. Therefore, from July 1 to July 15 he can still break even, $1 (price)
minus $1 (production cost) equal $0 profits. However, beyond this point he would be losing money to
ship 1,000 melons or less. At this point he just leaves the melons in the fields

Harvesting 2,000 melons per shipment and selling 2,000 melons per city presents yet another
logistical nightmare for Black farmers like we here at Muhammad Farms. Holding our prices to where
we can survive becomes almost impossible. Because we produce a quality melon and represent a
“good” cause, the consumer could be willing to pay more for our melons.  However, I
guess until our label or “mark” in the melon market becomes as desirous as beasts like
“Reebok” and “Nike” in sports shoe market, we will just have to accept crumbs
from the consumer’s table. In the meantime we have to compete with the big white farmers who got a
leg up using our tax dollars, while we, Black farmers, are still looking for our “boot
straps” to pull ourselves up by.

However, if a group of people in each city would go into the watermelon distribution business and
be willing to accept a flat broker’s price of $2.00 per melon for the entire summer, and could
guarantee truckload shipments of 2,000 melons, and if Black consumers would be willing to pay $5.00
per melon in those cities, then…. Oh well, so much for dreaming. I’ve got to go back to the
fields.

Volume 3, Number 10                                                                                                                        
August 1, 2000

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by Dr. Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad