Full Text of HR0625 103rd General Assembly
HR0625enr 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY | | | HR0625 Enrolled | | LRB103 39637 MST 69997 r |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION 625 | 2 | | WHEREAS, Farming as a family-owned and independent | 3 | | business has been an important part of the social and economic | 4 | | development of Illinois and the United States; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, Black farmers in America have had a long struggle | 6 | | to own land and operate independently; for more than a century | 7 | | after emancipation and the ratification of the 13th Amendment | 8 | | that abolished slavery, various economic and social barriers | 9 | | were discriminatorily applied towards Black farmers, and the | 10 | | few existing civil rights laws were rarely enforced; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, Pembroke Township, founded by self-emancipated, | 12 | | escaped enslaved people, was once home to the largest | 13 | | community of Black farmers in the north; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, In 1920, Illinois had 892 Black farmers, and | 15 | | African Americans owned 14 percent of the nation's farmland; | 16 | | and | 17 | | WHEREAS, According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's | 18 | | National Statistics Service, as of April 2019, Illinois had | 19 | | 72,000 farms, covering 27 million acres, which is | 20 | | approximately 75% of the State's total land area; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, As of the 2017 USDA Agricultural Census, there | 2 | | were 188 individually Black-owned farms, which are a combined | 3 | | 40,412 acres; out of the 116,417 agricultural producers in | 4 | | Illinois, 267 are Black; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, As farming has become a big business, it has | 6 | | become one of the least diverse business sectors in our State, | 7 | | and the pressure to consolidate has reduced the ranks of | 8 | | family and independent farmers for the past century; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, The scarcity of African American farmers stems | 10 | | from the troubled history of the U.S.; for sharecroppers, | 11 | | farming was associated with the poverty and the backbreaking | 12 | | labor of slavery; for those who owned land, unequal treatment | 13 | | made it difficult to retain property and earn a living, and | 14 | | racial discrimination played a major role in driving Black | 15 | | farmers off of their land; as recently as the mid-1990s, Black | 16 | | farmers who agreed to sell crops would routinely be offered | 17 | | lower prices at market than white farmers for equivalent | 18 | | products; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, In a landmark legal settlement, the U.S. | 20 | | Department of Agriculture acknowledged that it had abused | 21 | | Black farmers for generations when agents approved only a | 22 | | fraction of financing requests, delayed loans until after the | 23 | | planting season, and withheld other key payments; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Movements in Illinois and across the country have | 2 | | fought to rectify historic discrimination against Black | 3 | | farmers and to develop interest in farming in young people and | 4 | | have worked to innovate in the farming space, including the | 5 | | development of Black-oriented urban agriculture, vertical | 6 | | farming, and microfarms in order to deliver fresher and | 7 | | healthier foods to communities and consumers in need of better | 8 | | food choices; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Black farmers can play a leading role in building | 10 | | local healthy food systems and creating regional networks of | 11 | | jobs, food, agricultural goods, and related opportunities; | 12 | | therefore, be it | 13 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 14 | | HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 15 | | we declare May 12 through May 18, 2024 as Black Farmers Week in | 16 | | the State of Illinois; and be it further | 17 | | RESOLVED, That we encourage the people of Illinois and | 18 | | their representatives in government to learn about the history | 19 | | of Black farming communities and the contributions made by | 20 | | African Americans to agriculture in the United States; and be | 21 | | it further |
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 2 | | presented to the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the | 3 | | National Black Farmers Association. |
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