In response to decades of well-documented discrimination against farmers based on race and gender, the 1990 Farm Bill defined “socially disadvantaged” as a category that applied to Black or African American, American Indian or Native Alaskan, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander farmers. Depending on the program, women may also be included.
Some farm bill grant programs are designed specifically for these groups, like the 2501 Program, which also serves veteran farmers. Other programs administered by the agency, as well as farm loans, have included carve-outs for disadvantaged groups. For example, the 2018 Farm Bill mandated that 5 percent of grant funding in the Conservation Stewardship Program, which pays farmers to implement environmentally friendly practices, had to go to socially disadvantaged farmers.
A National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition analysis found that the policy was successful in helping get funds to farmers who had historically been locked out of USDA support. The new rule would likely end set-asides like that one, although the exact outcome is unclear since Congress has authority over how the USDA spends money.
