Black Farmers in America, with Seanicaa Edwards Herron

Notable Quotes

• Access to capital is limited by historical and systemic discrimination: “Black farmers have faced long-standing racial discrimination from both private lenders and government programs, and this discrimination has made it difficult for them to obtain loans and other forms of credit. Also, due to historical inequities in land ownership and accumulated wealth … Black farmers are more likely to have less collateral needed for securing loans compared to their white counterparts … So, those challenges combined have created major obstacles for farmers to access capital.” (14:07)
• Programs that support Black farmers should address specific needs: “Cultural competency is needed when addressing these programs, meaning that they should be targeted to the specific needs of the farmers that they’re working with, whether it is based on ethnicity or region of the country, because there is not one-size-fits-all technical assistance. But specifically to Black farmers, providing education in agricultural best practices, financial literacy, and business management tailored to their specific needs is going to be very important.” (20:57)
• Mission of the Freedmen Heirs Foundation: “We are bridging the gap between two worlds: Black farmers and the marketplace.” (23:57)

Top of the Stack

• “Minority Food Producers in the Climate Transition” webinar from Resources for the Future
• Exposure event series from Resources for the Future
• Season 3 of The Heist podcast
• Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land film

The Full Transcript

Margaret Walls: Hello, and welcome to Resources Radio, a weekly podcast from Resources for the Future. I'm your host, Margaret Walls. My guest today is Seanicaa Edwards Herron. Seanicaa is the founder and executive director of the Freedmen Heirs Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that works to ensure the success of Black farmers in the United States. Seanicaa is an agricultural economist by training, and she worked for many years in different capacities at the US Department of Agriculture and in private industry.

I'm going to ask her to tell us a little bit more about her background in a few minutes. She launched Freedmen Heirs about four years ago. The foundation helps farmers in a lot of ways. It helps them access capital, government-funding programs, and markets for their products. I'm really excited to have Seanicaa on the show today to talk to us about some background and statistics on Black and minority farmers in the United States, some of the challenges they face, why she founded Freedmen Heirs, and the work that the foundation is doing. So, stay with us.

Hello, Seanicaa. Welcome to Resources Radio. Thanks for coming on the show.

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Hello. Thank you for having me.

Margaret Walls: Before we dive in, I am really excited to hear more about you, because we always start our show with us to learn a little bit about our guests. Could you just tell folks about your background—how you got into your line of work, including becoming an agricultural economist, and, especially, what motivated you to launch Freedmen Heirs?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Absolutely. I come from a long lineage of Black farmers, sharecroppers, and formerly enslaved Black folks, and I'm really proud of that. I grew up in a Mississippi town called Hernando, and agriculture has always been a major part of my life. It was a natural progression for me to continue my professional pursuits in agriculture. That's all I knew, and I loved it.

I went on to Mississippi State. I received both my bachelor's and master's degree at Mississippi State University in agribusiness and agricultural economics, respectively—shout out to Mississippi State University for laying the foundation for my successful 20-year career as an agricultural economist and market analyst.

To your last question, I was motivated to start Freedmen Heirs Foundation, because I wanted to support and advocate for Black farmers, utilizing my skills and experience and leveraging my network to further the cause of creating a more equitable agricultural industry and to give back to that same community that gave so much to me.

Margaret Walls: I'm excited to hear more about that. Let me ask you, first—is your family still farming, Seanicaa?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: All of my family is still located in Mississippi. I'm the only one that migrated to different places, and now I'm in the Washington, DC, area. My family is still in Mississippi, and one day, maybe, I will move back down south.

Margaret Walls: Yeah. First, a quick question—tell me how you chose the name of your organization when you founded it. Can you explain the meaning to folks of Freedmen Heirs?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Absolutely. That is such a great question, and we're often asked about the significance of the name Freedmen Heirs Foundation. Each word was carefully chosen to reflect the history and future of Black Americans in agriculture. It was steeped in historical and cultural significance based upon the legacy of freed men and women. If you think about the Freedmen's Bureau Act of 1865, that remains steadfast in the face of discrimination, racism, hardships, and unfulfilled promises. The “heirs” of the name is actually just a pure definition of being an heir of those freed men and women, standing upon the shoulders of those men and women, and creating a vision for a more equitable agriculture industry.

So, Freedmen Heirs Foundation is built upon supporting the development and advancement of the next generation of Black farmers, ranchers, and landowners. I see our goal is to promote successful, agricultural-based businesses and farms and to increase market access and supply-chain diversity. This is what it's all about—the work that we're doing, the goals, the mission, and vision that we're trying to achieve.

Margaret Walls: Okay. Let's back up, and let me ask you—I think this is a fair question for an agricultural economist—to give us some statistics about farmers in the United States and some background on how many Black farmers, approximately, there are; what percentage do they comprise of all farmers; how those numbers have changed; what kind of farming do they tend to do; and a few things like that—if you don't mind.

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Absolutely. The statistics that I am going to provide are based on the United States Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture, and this is a survey that's done every five years. The most recent survey is based on data for 2022, and the prior survey is based on 2017. Based in 2022, the United States has approximately 46,000 producers who identified as Black, either alone or in combination with another race. This accounted for only 1.4 percent of the country's 3.4 million producers. When you look at that number relative to 2017, the change was a decline of 4 percent, and that is looking at Black producers. When we look at the numbers on Black-operated farms, that number is around 32,000 farms, which is down 7 or 8 percent relative to 2017.

Now, if we want to take a step back and look at a longer trend, in 1920, there were approximately 1 million Black farmers in the United States. Now, there are only about 46,000. That's over a 90 percent decrease in the last 100 years. When we look at the land base or the acreage in 1920, there were about 41 million acres that were owned by Black farmers. Now, that number is slightly over 5 million. That's a decline of 87 percent. Even when you're looking at the numbers from a relative standpoint, from 2017 to 2022, or if you step back and look at the numbers from a longer-term view, you see that there is a very, very sharp decline in numbers of Black farmers and Black-operated farms. The number of acres is decreasing.

When we look at it from a geographical standpoint, the majority of Black farmers, based on the Census of Agriculture, are in the southern portion of the country, including Texas and the mid-Atlantic states of South Carolina and North Carolina. Black farmers are growing everything from oil seeds and your traditional grains, specialty crops, cattle, and hogs and pigs. But the majority of that would be cattle, specialty crops, other crops, grains, and seeds.

Margaret Walls: I was reading some things in advance of our recording today, and you mentioned the decline in land ownership. To make this point—I think you would agree with it—owning land is a way to grow wealth. That's a very important way for people to do well in this country. And as somebody had done a calculation of the value of the production on the land that had been lost since 1920, and it was $326 billion of the value of that land that had been lost by Black farmers. It's a really significant decline that we've seen.

Let me turn, if you don't mind, to this geographic thing. You said that a sizable proportion of Black farmers are in the South. Is there any particular reason for that, Seanicaa? Is that because Southern states have a higher African American population overall? Is it something about farming and agriculture and the history that's led to those patterns?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Absolutely. I think there are a few key points that we can touch on, number one being a historical context. Following the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, many slaves became sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the Southern states. Over time, some were able to purchase land; often, the same land that they worked on as slaves. This historical perspective or context rooted many Black folks in communities in Southern agriculture. When we look at it from a demographic perspective, the Southern states have historically had and continue to have the largest population of African Americans in the United States. So, this demographic distribution, if you will, naturally translates into a higher concentration of Black farmers in the area.

Also, when you're thinking about the economic factors—economic barriers such as discrimination and lending, land-ownership challenges, and limited access to capital—have historically constrained the ability of Black farmers to acquire land and resources outside of these traditional areas. So, many have continued to farm in the South, where they may have more familial and community ties. Also, Black farmers have faced significant challenges in retaining land due to legal and systemic issues like heir property, which has led to land loss, particularly in the South. So, efforts to support and stabilize Black land ownership often focus on these regions due to higher concentration, as well.

Margaret Walls: Let me ask you a bit more about the access-to-capital thing, because I know that's something you work on a lot. Farming is a pretty capital-intensive enterprise. Farmers need to access financing to do what they do. Maybe just elaborate on that a little bit for our listeners who might not know a lot about farming and farm operations. And then, tell us a little bit more, if you could, in some details about the problems Black farmers have tended to face in accessing capital.

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Absolutely. I'll start off by saying this: Farming, in general, is a very capital-intensive business, requiring substantial investments—not just for land itself, but also for equipment, seeds, fertilizers, and labor. Starting a farm can involve heavy up-front costs, including purchasing or leasing land, building infrastructure like barns or greenhouses, and buying the necessary machinery or equipment, such as tractors and harvesters.

Also, when you're thinking from a business perspective beyond the initial investment, farmers must continually invest in their operations. They have to purchase seeds; they're purchasing livestock; they're purchasing feed for the livestock; they're purchasing a plethora of things. In addition to that, those labor costs can be significant for those that have the ability and financial wherewithal to even have labor on their operations. And then, we're thinking about cash-flow management, and farmers must manage their cash flow carefully to cover those expenses until harvest comes or they're able to sell their crops. That's first and foremost.

When it comes to the specific challenges faced by Black farmers in assessing capital, again, let's go back to that historical discrimination piece, because it's going to be key in a lot of the things that we're talking about today. Black farmers have faced long-standing racial discrimination from both private lenders and government programs, and this discrimination has made it difficult for them to obtain loans and other forms of credit. Also, due to historical inequities in land ownership and accumulated wealth, as you mentioned at the top of the call, Black farmers are more likely to have less collateral needed for securing loans compared to their white counterparts. Navigating the bureaucracy to access federal farm support programs can be daunting, and there have been instances where Black farmers received less support or encountered more obstacles in the process. So, those challenges combined have created major obstacles for farmers to access capital.

Also, thinking about it from the standpoint of creditworthiness, some financial institutions—and this is steeped in discrimination—may perceive Black farmers as a high-risk borrower, due to factors such as smaller farm size, lower average farm incomes, and as I mentioned before, the lack of collateral, making it harder for them to qualify for traditional loans. I can't pinpoint just five; it's so many different parts and pieces that have combined over time that have resulted in systemic inequities within certain institutions that have resulted in Black farmers facing hurdles and barriers that other farmer nationality groups don't have to face or have not faced to the extent that many Black farmers have faced.

Margaret Walls: Right. I think this carries over to access to markets. If you're going to be able to grow a crop or raise livestock or what have you, you need to be able to sell those products to make a living. There's some challenges there, as well. Can you say something about that?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Absolutely. You're right. It's almost like an overlapping circle, because with limited market access, many Black farmers operate on smaller scales and they may not have or produce enough volume to attract larger buyers, like major grocery chains or even exports, for that matter. That smaller size can restrict them to local or less lucrative models.

Also, thinking about it as a minority farmer in this country that has historically been left out of markets and market access, when you are presented with an opportunity, you need to know what it is that you need to do. In some cases, what you don't know really can hurt you. For many of the Black farmers, not having the access to those markets—maybe they don't have a GAP certification, or maybe they don't have other certifications or requirements that some of the buyers may want for them to have. I think that's where—and we'll talk a little bit later about technical assistance—comes in and the ability to level the playing field.

But then, I also want to touch on the fact that many Black farmers often lack representation in major agricultural organizations and cooperatives that could provide better market access. These organizations typically help negotiate better terms with buyers, access larger markets, and provide logistical support.

There can be discriminatory practices at play that affect how Black farmers have been able to access these markets. This includes biases against Black-owned farms, which can result in fewer opportunities. Infrastructure and supply-chain issues also can be barriers. Accessing larger markets often requires adherence to specific standards and regulations, which can be a barrier for those who cannot afford the necessary upgrades to equipment or the different processes that are needed to walk into those opportunities.

Many Black farmers also face the lack of necessary information—or what I like to call accurate information or resources—to effectively market their products or navigate distribution channels. Again, remembering that they have not had these opportunities, because discrimination, systemic racism, and biases have kept them shut out. So, accessing the market expertise and industry contacts are going to be crucial for expanding market access and market reach.

Margaret Walls: Right. As you're speaking, I'm realizing how interlinked all of these problems are. To access certain markets, you need to upgrade your equipment to get certifications. You can't get access to financing to upgrade your equipment, and everything ties back to some of the historical problems, as well.

One of the things you just mentioned is technical assistance. Just helping people navigate things is really important. I know that a lot of federal government agencies are developing new kinds of technical assistance programs, such as grants, loans, and other kinds of financial assistance. They've tried to offer technical assistance to help historically disadvantaged groups get better access to the program. So, in what you work in with Black farmers, what do you think is needed in this regard to help them out?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Technical assistance is going to be vital for leveling the playing field and helping Black farmers capitalize on government programs, if they choose to do so, and designed to help aid the increase in efficiency of their operations. I always like to utilize the term when I can, “cultural competency.” Cultural competency is needed when addressing these programs, meaning that they should be targeted to the specific needs of the farmers that they're working with, whether it is based on ethnicity or region of the country, because there is not one-size-fits-all technical assistance. But specifically to Black farmers, providing education in agricultural best practices, financial literacy, and business management tailored to their specific needs is going to be very important.

Also, simplifying the process of applying for and maintaining eligibility for government grants or even philanthropic grants, loans, and other programs—this, in my mind, would include step-by-step guidance, simplifying the paperwork, and also providing support through the application process. That takes some of the burden off of the farmers, and the process is simpler, more efficient, and smoother. I anticipate that there could be, or we could see, an increase of farmers who want to participate; advocacy and representation, ensuring that Black farmers have strong representation in agricultural policy; decisionmaking and advocacy that can help tailor government programs more closely to the needs and ensure equitable distribution of those resources; market support, which we talked about; access to technology … There are so many things that we can talk about on the technical assistance side—even networking opportunities, creating more opportunities for the farmers to connect with their peers, mentors, and industry contacts. Agriculture is an industry that's built upon relationships, so networking can help share knowledge and access to new markets that can enhance buying power and market presence.

I think that addressing these areas is not the end-all be-all. These are just a few that I want to touch on, but technical assistance programs can make a significant difference in the viability and growth of Black farming operations when done right, helping them to overcome historical disadvantages and achieve greater equity in US agriculture.

Margaret Walls: Thanks for that, Seanicaa. It makes sense. Tell us about some of the programs and activities that y'all are doing at Freedmen Heirs that's trying to make a dent in some of these problems.

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Absolutely. We have a tagline at Freedmen Heirs. We say that we are bridging the gap between two worlds: Black farmers and the marketplace. A lot of the work that we do is around market access, and being an ag economist, that's very important to me and exciting to me. I also realize that technical assistance is very important. So, where we come into play on the technical assistance side is whatever the farmers need, whether it's, "Hey, Seanicaa, I don't understand what this means,” or “I need help with this application, can you provide me some names of different individuals that I can talk to about market access?"

It is more so about meeting the farmers where they are; helping them to understand market dynamics; helping them to understand having a great marketing plan is important and crucial to the overall efficiency of your business; helping them to understand supply-and-demand fundamentals, in addition to understanding how to navigate the US Department of Agriculture or any other programs outside of the Department of Agriculture that the farmer wants to participate in; and providing them the autonomy to make the decision for themselves and not try to make those decisions for them.

Then, we are working on the market-access side with a program called Freedmen Heirs Foundation Social Mass Balance, where we utilize a model structure to help to integrate Black farmers into supply chains, but also have the ability to track and trace the volumes that are actually trickling through those supply chains so that we can have an accurate account of the impact that Black farmers are having, how they are faring socially, how they are faring from a revenue standpoint by being connected with, maybe, larger buyers than they are traditionally used to.

I would also like to make sure that I mention that we are doing a webinar series with Resources for the Future, along with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, which is funded by PACT [Platform for Agriculture and Climate Transformation]. We have been doing a series of webinars on the cost and benefits of minority producers transitioning to regenerative agriculture. I think that it is something that's very important. We have our last of the four webinars coming up on December 6, and we'll be focusing on economic analysis. It's been a great series, and it has opened up our eyes to a lot of different barriers, but also provided a lot of great information for the producers with solutions and ways that we can help them meet them where they are and help them in this new transition.

Margaret Walls: That's great. Tell folks about quickly what regenerative agriculture is, what that's all about?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Regenerative agriculture is the new term that folks are using, but it's actually been around for a long time, and a lot of Indigenous farmers and Black farmers were already utilizing those practices. It's an alternative to what some folks would call conventional agriculture, where there's a more of a focus on the soil health and regenerating the soil; utilizing different practices such as cover crops; decreasing the usage of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides; and going back to traditional production in a sense before we became an industrialized agricultural industry.

Margaret Walls: That's great. I'll look forward to the last webinar in the series.

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: The last webinar in the series will be December 6.

Margaret Walls: That's great. I'll look forward to it.

Well, these episodes go by quickly, Seanicaa, and we have to close with a regular feature we have called Top of the Stack, where we ask our guests to recommend something to listeners—a book, an article, a podcast; anything, really, that's caught your attention lately. So, what's on the top of your stack, Seanicaa?

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: The top of my stack is a podcast called The Heist, and it's hosted by the Center for Public Integrity. In the third season of The Heist, they chronicle the day in the life of Black farmer, Nate Bradford Jr., as well as other Black farmers and ranchers who are fighting to preserve Black agricultural life. In this third season of The Heist, they follow Mr. Bradford's fight to survive against the long-documented history of government discrimination against Black farmers. So, for any of the listeners out there who want to get an idea and real primary perspective, I think that this would be a great podcast.

I would also like to highlight the film Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land. That's a great film that also chronicles Black farmers in the United States and their family history and lineage of how they have had to overcome so many obstacles in securing land, but they had the fortitude and resiliency to keep fighting, and they chronicle their stories. I think it's great. Al Roker and his team are behind that, so I think that's a great docuseries or documentary that folks can follow if they want to know more about it.

Margaret Walls: Fantastic. I was scribbling notes real quick while you were saying both of those things. That's great.

Seanicaa, it's been great having you on Resources Radio and learning more about the work of the Freedmen Heirs Foundation. I really appreciate you taking the time, and thanks so much for coming on the show.

Seanicaa Edwards Herron: Thank you for having me. It has been a blast. Hopefully, I can come back again soon.

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