2007 Farm Bill Debate: Beyond the Trauma of Pigford

By Khubaka, Michael Harris, North Carolina State Capitol, Raleigh, NC

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry. He will chair the Senate/House conference committee to resolve the potential broad gaps in the 2007 Food and Farm Bill policy debate legislative and administrative. U.S. farm policy could reflect forward looking thinking that encourages Black Agribusiness as the essential element to curbing epidemic levels of adverse diet related disease that constricts productive economic utility in measurable majority of our 40 million Black Americans.

Millions of North Carolina residents and Black Americans around the world will prepare for the 2007 Kwanzaa harvest season. Leidesdorff Ranch, California we are preparing cassava leaves, jack fruit, okra, greens, butter beans, sweet potato and ginger root for our ‘ancestral first fruits harvest celebrations.” However a vast majority of Black Americans are more likely to grill hamburgers and hot dogs and drink soda pop celebrating oppressive xenophile agricultural traditions, possibly creating a diet related diseased and traumatic lifestyle.

Reviewing several centuries of systemic racism and eternalized oppression we can arrive at a root cause of significant changes in the Black American diet and cultural mores that has lead to the current epidemic levels of diet related disease. A foundation to healthy Black communities are vibrant locally owned agribusiness.

What may surprise you that our U.S. government continues to pay billions to “former slave owner land payments” and compensate corporate agribusiness via “social security payments.” Since the Spring of 1862, the beginning of an end of U.S. Chattel Slavery and official beginning of U.S. Agricultural Policy, USDA administrative officials and career employees have worked to facilitate the earth’s global agribusiness engine.

Billions of dollars of uncompensated agricultural labor hours is no different from today’s missed opportunity of synergistic economic activity utilizing an engaged job creation agribusiness opportunity. We cannot afford to endure fear and apathy toward reversing adverse health impacts. Why allow a capitulation of backwards thinking toward a “previous condition of servitude” and systemic institutional racism. We can form a more perfect union by the choice of what we consume as food, fiber, fuel, forestry and finance.

Typically, you'll find processed foods, denatured additives and artery-clogging trans fats from subsidized oil products as singular favorite choice of product in Black Americans food basket.

Synthetic fats throughout the typical Black Americans diet has helped to increase epidemic levels of gross obesity rates, a surge in diabetes cases and the #1 killer of Black women, heart disease.

Ethnic diversity within specialty crops is the required transition for a sacred high culture diet of grasses, fruits and vegetables. It is the only possible way to return to quantifiable vibrant natural condition of health. The demand for local produced labor intensive specialty crops will spark modern agribusiness opportunity for job creation community renewal and healthy families. Gold, Red, Black and Green are sacred colors in our authentic natural community way of life.

Our mission is to create an environment where it's easy to eat healthy and own a successful agribusiness.

Our comprehensive plan of action is based upon a methodology that studies and measures aggregate economic impact from a fully engaged National Agricultural Black Caucus to include: food, fiber, fuel, forestry and finance. Global partnerships will facilitate the basis of a positive way forward, where together we find the courage to consider a new paradigm; Beyond the Trauma of Pigford.

Many Black Americans and global partnerships will choose to embrace a new golden age of agribusiness growth and development toward nurturing a healthy expansion of necessary biological dietary connection where our ancestors and unborn children dine on culturally specific high culture grasses, fruits and vegetables.