Black farmers it seems to have received the rough end of every stick this past century.
In 1910, they represented about 14% of US farmers and owned over 16 million acres of land. Today, one in 100 farmers is black, owning less than 5 million acres and losing $326 billion in land value. Farmers are complaint the USDA for alleged discrimination.
VC investment in the agtech space has boomed in recent years, and many farmers also receive some type of subsidized funding, either from the government or nonprofits. However, these opportunities do not seem to fall to black founders. Crunchbase found that as of 2018, $98.6 million of the $39.4 billion has gone to just five black-owned agtech companies. This, along with alleged government discrimination, means that black farmers have been marginalized from accessing the appropriate financial resources they need to survive in this market.
For these reasons in 2017, Karen Washington and Olivia Watkins created the Black Farmers Fund. The fund provides economic and social opportunities for black farmers and agribusinesses in the North East, with the aim of helping to build community wealth for black agribusinesses across the region. There are about 703 black farms in the Northeast out of 196,000 total, Watkins said, adding that in New York alone, the average black farmer makes -$906, while white farmers make about $42,000. “There’s a huge racial wealth gap in agriculture and across all industries,” Watkins said.
The fund is technically a non-profit organization with a debt fund attached. It raised an oversubscribed $1.1 million pilot fund in 2021 from investors and foundations, which it then invested in eight companies. It is raising its second fund with a goal of $20 million and has reached about half that amount so far, Watkins said. As a debt fund, it offers low-interest community notes and grants, writing checks ranging from $1,000 to $3 million.
