This week on The Farm Report, Erin Fairbanks is talking with Mircha King of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives about the Pigford case- a class action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination on the part of the USDA concerning the distribution of loans and credits. Tune in to hear Mircha and Erin discuss the roots of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in the Civil Rights Movement, the history and intricacies of the Pigford case, and the changes that black farmers see twenty years after the case. To learn more about the Pigford case, visit BlackFarmerCase.com. This episode has been brought to you by Fairway Market.

"What these lawsuits had asserted that the United States Department of Agriculture had systematically discriminated against African American farmers on the basis of race, which violates the 5th Amendment."

"Before Reagan left office, one of the things that he did was terminate the office of civil rights for the U.S.D.A... So for years there were stacks of boxes and boxes with claims of discrimination that no one even touched."

"We have all of these discrimination claims- we have black farmers, Native American farmers, women farmers, Hispanic farmers- and he [Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture] made a personal commitment to settle these claims."

-- Mircha King on The Farm Report

Tomm Becker started farming due to his desire for adventure and loved it from the moment he began. While he studied to earn a degree in English Literature from Michigan State University, he worked at the MSU Student Organic Farm and at Owosso Organics, Pooh Stevenson's farm in Owosso, MI. After graduation, he began working as the Production Manager at the Student Organic Farm. It was through growing in all seasons for that CSA, training and guiding the student farmers, and teaching three cohorts of students in the Organic Farming Certificate Program, that he gained the skills and confidence he felt he needed to endure as a farmer. Tomm started Sunseed Farm with his partner, Trilby, in the Fall of 2009 and started their CSA in May of 2010. They came by their land through our friends and CSA members who own it and live in the barn up the road. They are in the process of working with Ann Arbor Greenbelt to place a conservation easement on the property which would preserve it as farmland forever. They see this as an important step in conserving farmland near Ann Arbor, and it will be instrumental in enabling them to purchase the land.