A Baptist leader said Tuesday that the United States’ farm policy is unfair to African-American farmers and disadvantaged farmers in Africa, the Caribbean and the developing world.<\/p>\n
Earl Trent, executive director of missions for the Progressive National Baptist Convention, joined other religious leaders on Capitol Hill hours before the House Agriculture Committee was set to begin debating the 2007 Farm Bill to call for reform that reflects American values of fairness and equal opportunity.<\/p>\n
In prepared remarks, Trent said the Progressive National Baptist Convention, founded in 1961, the convention of Martin Luther King, has in its “organizational DNA” a central concern for “the least, the lost and the left out of our society.”<\/p>\n
Current farm policies, Trent said, are inequitable. Commodity subsidies to black farmers are “abysmally low,” he said. Out of every $100,000 given for subsidies, black farmers receive three dollars.<\/p>\n