A ‘cultural transformation’ at the US Department of Agriculture?: Examining racial (in)equality through federal farmland protection programs in Georgia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past several decades the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a 'Cultural Transformation Initiative' aimed at addressing racial discrimination. Yet recent work from a wide range of sources questions whether these efforts have resulted in meaningful material transformations to USDA governance. This article focuses on one of the USDA's main farmland protection programs and analyzes the extent to which it challenges and/or reproduces racial inequalities in the state of Georgia. We conclude that the program continues to present significant barriers to racial equity, many of which stem from national-level criteria. Moreover, the USDA's internal civil rights audit mechanism also fails to address or acknowledge these problems. We use quantitative and qualitative methods to highlight how racial inequality is reproduced through class biases, and argue that any meaningful transformation in the uneven effects of USDA programs requires attention to the historical geographies of land ownership.