The United States Department of Agriculture allocated $2.2 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act to be distributed by the Windsor Group to farmers who have been denied loans based on their minority status.
The United States Department of Agriculture is set to provide $3.8 million to fund various Cornell research projects supporting agriculture, rural communities and local economies in New York State.
Prof. Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, applied economics and policy, has recently been appointed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics Advisory Board.
Students and faculty gathered in Stocking Hall on March 4 to hear about rural development initiatives from Xochitl Torres Small, Under Secretary for Rural Development of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
On Nov. 19, 2020, Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., cosponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Md., and Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act. This ambituous legislation aims to “address the history of discrimination against Black farmers” and to “prevent future discrimination” within the United States Department of Agriculture, among other objectives. The act has since been endorsed by over 100 organizations, including the National Farmers Union, a century-old union of over 200,000 family farms, and Soul Fire Farm Inc., a New York farm at the focal point of the food sovereignty and justice movement.
The legislation has five distinct titles, arguing for broad civil rights reform within the USDA, the establishment of a land grant program, increased funding for historically Black colleges and universities, sweeping credit assistance and land retention programs and systemic agricultural reforms that prioritize socially disadvantaged farmers. Title II, Section 203 of the Justice for Black Farmers Act has perhaps the most immediate implications for not just Black farmers, but any eligible Black individual across the country.
Broad changes in the United States Department of Agriculture at the direction of the Trump administration have delayed University projects that rely on funding and cooperation from the federal agency, according to Cornell researchers.
New York’s grape industry won’t be going sour anytime soon, thanks to $68.9 million in funding secured to construct a new state-of-the-art research laboratory at Cornell’s Grape Genetic Research Unit.
Climate Week, which took place this year from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30, is a collection of hundreds of affiliated events. This year Cornell-affiliated organizations hosted three events in New York City for the 10th annual week.