Full Text of HR0046 102nd General Assembly
HR0046 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, In 1920, Illinois had 892 Black farmers, and | 3 | | African-Americans owned 14 percent of the nation's farmland; | 4 | | and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, As of the 2017 USDA Agricultural Census, there | 6 | | are 188 individually Black-owned farms which make up a | 7 | | combined 40,412 acres; out of the 116,417 agricultural | 8 | | producers in Illinois, 267 are Black and 115,896 are | 9 | | Caucasian; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, According to the USDA's National Statistics | 11 | | Service, as of April 2019, Illinois had 72,000 farms; | 12 | | Illinois' farmland covers 27 million acres, which is | 13 | | approximately 75% of the state's total land area; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, As farming has become a big business, it has | 15 | | become one of the least diverse businesses in our state; the | 16 | | pressure to consolidate that has reduced the ranks of farmers | 17 | | for the past century is making any turnaround unlikely; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, The number of Black farmers in Illinois appears | 19 | | destined to eventually be reduced to zero; the numbers are | 20 | | dwindling across much of the Midwest; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, The scarcity of African-American farmers stems | 2 | | from our troubled history as well; racial discrimination | 3 | | played a big role in driving Blacks off their land in southern | 4 | | states; for sharecroppers, farming was associated with the | 5 | | poverty and backbreaking labor of slavery; for those who owned | 6 | | land, unequal treatment made it difficult to retain the | 7 | | property and earn a living; as recently as the mid-1990s, | 8 | | white farmers who agreed to sell crops would routinely get | 9 | | better prices at market; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, In a landmark legal settlement, the U.S. | 11 | | Agriculture Department acknowledged that it had abused Black | 12 | | farmers for generations when agents approved only a fraction | 13 | | of financing requests, delayed loans until after the planting | 14 | | season, and withheld other key payments; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, Only in a few southern states have the ranks of | 16 | | Black farmers shown a notable increase; therefore, be it
| 17 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 18 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 19 | | we urge the Illinois Department of Agriculture to study the | 20 | | effects and the types of land loss to Black farmers from post | 21 | | slavery until now; and be it further | 22 | | RESOLVED, That we call for state support and capacity |
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| 1 | | building for Black farming communities across Illinois and a | 2 | | dedication to helping grow agriculture in rural, urban, and | 3 | | suburban areas to meet food access demands and increase | 4 | | economic resilience in vulnerable food desert communities; and | 5 | | be it further | 6 | | RESOLVED, That Black farmers can play a leading role in | 7 | | our local healthy food system and create regional networks of | 8 | | jobs, food, and opportunities; and be it further
| 9 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 10 | | delivered to the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the | 11 | | National Black Farmers Association.
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