Black US farmers brace for impact amid tariffs turmoil

Kat Stafford, Kia Johnson, Jayla Whitfield-Anderson

Wed, Apr 30, 2025, 12:06 PM 4 min read

By Kat Stafford, Kia Johnson, Jayla Whitfield-Anderson

BOYDTON, Virginia (Reuters) -As a fourth generation farmer, Virginia resident John Boyd Jr typically spends the busy spring season prepping his land to plant sweet corn seeds and soybeans.

But Boyd, the president and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, has also been busy fielding inquiries from Black farmers anxious about the impact of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.

“The farmers are calling and saying,‘Hey, Boyd, should I plant my crop, man? This ain't looking good for us. Have you heard anything from anybody where we can get some emergency loans?” Boyd recounted in an interview, as he worked on his farm. “And it's frustrating because the answer is no. We don't have the resources to help them.”

In several interviews, agricultural sociologists, public health and government and governance experts and advocates said the impact of Trump's tariffs could be more acute for Black farmers, given their historical challenges in accessing capital, retaining ownership of their land and the enduring legacy of decades of discrimination and racism.

Groups representing U.S. farmers and food processors have been mostly critical of Trump's tariffs on imports, which analysts say will hike prices for consumers. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the leading farm lobby, said the tariffs threaten farmers' competitiveness and could cause long-term damage.

“Everything about trade and tariffs over the past few months has just been so erratic that it is tough for businesses, for farmers, for analysts to know what's gonna happen, not only in the long term, but even from day to day or even hour to hour,” said Bill Winters, a Georgia Tech University sociology professor.

Black farmers today account for less than 2% of all U.S. farmers, a share that has significantly dropped over the past century, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. In 1920, 41.4 million acres were operated by Black farmers. By contrast, a USDA Census of Agriculture data report found Black producers operated 32,700 farms and ranches, covering about 5.3 million acres in 2022.

In a March 2021 website post affirming the agency's commitment to civil rights, former USDA secretary Tom Vilsack said the government needed to acknowledge the "USDA’s history of systemic discrimination via policies and programs designed to benefit those with access, education, assets, privilege rather than for those without." He pledged to root out systemic racism and barriers experienced by Black farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, and poor areas in rural America.