Source: Bryan Mims, WRAL, 5/26/21

 Minority farmers, who for decades have faced systemic discrimination, will begin to receive about $4 billion in debt relief beginning in early June as part of President Joe Biden's stimulus plan. A provision in the American Rescue Plan directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay off the farm loans of nearly 16,000 minority farmers and begin to address racial equity challenges. It authorizes the agency to pay up to 120 percent of direct and guaranteed loan outstanding balances for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. "I don't think people understand how people have been affected by losing their land, losing their homes, losing their families," said Kamal Bell, who had difficulty getting a $70,000 USDA loan five years ago for his 12-acre farm in Orange County.

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