Joe Bartee has been in the farming business for more than four decades. Bartee co-owns K&J Organic Farms in Pittsgrove Township with his grandson Kenneth since 2019; they specialize in fresh organic produce. The 79-year-old Bartee, one of few Black farmers in the area, says that he and his grandson aren’t treated equally.
Nearly 20 years after a class-action lawsuit led by Black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture was settled, Bartee says nothing has changed. When going out to sell his crops, he said he often received bids lower than market price or would fail to secure any bids on them. As a result, he needed to take out government loans, but said he wasn’t able to borrow as much as he really needed.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is among several lawmakers who have reintroduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act, legislation aimed at correcting historic discrimination in federal farm assistance programs and lending practices at the USDA. Booker said these have caused Black farmers to lose millions of acres of farmland and hundreds of billions of dollars of intergenerational wealth. Booker first introduced the legislation in 2020.
