This book provides a detailed discussion of four class-action
discrimination cases that have recently been settled within the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and have led to a change in the
way in which the USDA supports farmers from diverse backgrounds.
These settlements shed light on why access to successful farming has
been so often limited to white men and/or families, and significantly
this has led to a change for opportunities in the way the USDA supports
famers from diverse backgrounds. With chapters focusing on each
settlement Jett provides an overview of the USDA before diving into a
closer discussion of the four key settlements, involving African
American farmers (Pigford), Native Americans (Keepseagle), Woman famers
(Love) and Latino(a) farmers (Garcia), and the similarities between
each. This title places and emphasis on what is happening in farming
culture today, drawing connections between these four settlements and
the increasing attention on urban farming, community gardens, farmers
markets, organic farming and the slow food movement, through to the
larger issues of food justice and access to food.
Fighting for Farming Justice will be of interest to scholars of food
justice and the farming arena, as well as those in the fields of
Agricultural Economics, Civil Rights Law and Ethic Studies.