USDA celebrates final convening of equity commission

The U.S. Department of Agriculture celebrated the final convening of its Equity Commission on Sept. 25, 2024. (Screenshot from livestream courtesy of USDA)

Co-chairs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Equity Commission championed a “different” USDA during the commission’s final convening on Wednesday. 

The Equity Commission formed in February of 2022 to take a critical look at USDA programs, evaluate where systemic barriers existed and provide recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture. 

The commission created books of recommendations, some of which have already been implemented. One recommendation went into effect Wednesday to make Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm loans more accessible. 

The program changes give borrowers flexible repayment terms, reduced collateral, and the ability to defer up to one annual loan payment at a reduced interest rate. 

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Ertharin Cousin, CEO for Food Systems for the Future and co-chair of the Equity Commission, said the USDA has often been described as “the people’s department,” even though many of the people who needed its assistance have not felt they could get that support in the past. 

Cousin said she believes ongoing efforts toward equity will correct that.

“Every American who has any stakeholder interest … of the department is unabashed in outreaching to the department for those services, because of the responsiveness of the department to every American,” Cousin said when asked of her hopes for the program moving forward. 

Cousin, along with co-chair Arturo Rodríguez and Willis Nelson, a third-generation farmer from Louisiana, sat on a panel in the USDA Headquarters in Washington D.C. to commemorate the close of the commission. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small moderated the panel and spoke on the accomplishments of the commission. 

“Today is a day to reflect and a day to celebrate,” Torres Small said. “And to recognize that we will continue implementing this book.”

Torres Small noted some of the work of the commission, like better loan programs, improved technical support, funding and structure for rural development, summer nutrition programs, and $2 billion allocated to producers who have been discriminated against by USDA farm lending in the past. Many of these programs Torres Small pointed to directly in the commission’s final report from February 2024. 

Nelson noted tangible changes since the…