Source: POLITICO' S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/14/20

The former veep has been trying to make a dent in Trump’s support among farmers and rural voters, and part of Biden’s strategy is to appeal to the nation’s nearly 49,000 Black ag producers, who are concentrated in Southern battleground states including Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, writes POLITICO’s Ximena Bustillo.

Over the summer, Biden’s campaign enlisted surrogates and organized roundtable discussions in an aggressive push to build support among the small but potentially significant slice of the rural vote. Black farmers have long faced higher barriers to success in agriculture, including difficulties keeping farmland that was long held by their families or accessing USDA financial programs.

John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, endorsed Biden earlier this and says he’s “given up” on hoping to advance a platform for Black farmers under the Trump administration. The Biden campaign so far has released a plan to work with nonwhite farmers to tackle the disparities in the industry and federal farm policy, and surrogates like former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy have assured ag voters that Biden would address such issues as president.

But, but, but: The campaign outreach isn’t convincing for everyone. The USDA Coalition of Minority Employees sent a letter to the campaign warning that the group was disappointed in the lack of a “solution-driven civil rights policy” like the ideas backed by Biden’s onetime primary rivals Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. The coalition said Biden’s plans were “a marathon away” from such detailed proposals .