
DATE: Saturday, September 6, 1997           TAG: 9709060338

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

FARMERS VS. THE USDA THE GROUP OF 641 BLACKS SAY LOAN REVIEWS TAKE TOO LONG.

Theron Blount Sr. feels kinship with the 641 black farmers nationwide who filed a class action suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, charging that the agency took too long to review loan applications, then ignored their complaints.

In 1986, Blount, of Isle of Wight County, nearly lost his family farm because, he said, a Farmers Home Administration manager rejected his loan application, even though a committee had approved it and his previous year's loan had been repaid.

Blount filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. ``That's the only thing that saved me,'' he said.

He then started dealing with a bank for operating funds. ``I've been fine since then,'' he said.

Claiming they long have been victims of racial discrimination by USDA officials, the farmers are seeking $513 million in damages. African Americans now represent less than 1 percent of the nation's 1.9 million farmers.

Rejections and delays in loan processing have been only part of the problem, local farmers agree. Black farmers have encountered smaller yield assignments - anticipated production - and lower prices for crops, they said.

``From my standpoint, though, it has gone against all poor farmers - not just the blacks,'' said Clifton Slade, Virginia Tech Extension agent in Suffolk. ``The practices have basically set the poor farmer up for failure.''

Ernest Blount, a Surry County farmer and member of the National Commission on Small Farms - organized earlier this year by Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman - agreed.

``Somebody finally had the initiative to move forward,'' Ernest Blount said. ``It just happens that it was this group of black farmers.''

Local farmers will have an opportunity to speak to the commission in Washington on Wednesday.

The complaints are not new. In February, Glickman promised he would clear 875 discrimination complaints and eradicate discrimination within the department.

``I intend to have USDA emerge in the dawn of the next century as the federal civil rights leader,'' Glickman told farmers last week at the annual field day at Virginia State University in Petersburg.

Glickman hired a civil rights director for the department and pledged to establish civil rights offices in each agency.

He also appointed 30 members to the National Commission on Small Farms, which has toured the country listening to complaints from poor and minority farmers.

A report by Glickman's office pinpoints a common complaint: ``The federal government writes off millions of dollars of loans to foreign countries that cannot pay, yet forecloses on U.S. farmers when they can't pay.''

In several Southeastern states, the report says, it took three times as long to process African-Americans' loan applications as others.

Ernest Blount, one of two Virginians on the commission, said the goal of the commission is to recommend ways the government can keep small farmers viable.

``We want to know what the USDA can do to keep the small farmer on the farm,'' Blount said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Theron Blount Sr., an Isle of Wight county farmer, says he nearly

lost his family farm in 1986 after his loan application was

rejected. A bankruptcy filing allowed him to keep the land.

Graphic

The farmers say: The USDA has rejected and delayed the processing of

their loans.

The USDA says: The department has appointed a 30-member commission

to tour the country and listen to farmers' complaints.