Sam Witcher, 88, is a retired tobacco farmer in Snow Creek. He owns about 1,000 acres of land in Franklin and Henry counties. "I figured my children or their children would make use of it one day," he said.

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) kept up his pressure on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Thursday, suggesting that the department sought to weaken legislation designed to provide relief for disenfranchised black farmers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has conducted or is conducting an internal review of employees who plotted to illegally lobby the U.S. Senate against a farm bill that helps black farmers but it will not publicize any action taken against the employees.

The National Black Farmers Association needs your help to ensure passage of Senate Bill 1989 The Black Farmers Late Claim Bill. The sponsors of the bill are Senators Grassley, Obama, Kennedy, and Biden The Senate is expected to vote on the Farm bill in early September. It is very important to voice your support for the bill. Nearly 75,000 Black Farmers await the passage of Senate bill 1989.

The head of an Agriculture Department agency said Wednesday that she was prepared to take "appropriate action" against any employee who is found to have used government equipment to lobby against pending legislation.

A federal employee circulated an e-mail urging colleagues to lobby for the defeat of farm legislation in Congress, prompting a complaint from the National Black Farmers Association and a stern warning from U.S. Department of Agriculture officials.

Defying Federal Law, USDA employee is lobbying against congressional legislation that would restore legal rights to black farmers who were discriminated against by the USDA. National Black Farmers Association calls for USDA secretary to immediately place at least 38 employees on leave pending an investigation. A process was created to end racism in the farm service agency has instead kept it in place—a mix of federal employee lobbying and election threats.

Although a compromise in the U.S. House of Representatives may eventually help some black farmers pursue loan discrimination claims against the U.S. government, other minority farmers are saying more needs to be done.

Fiscal conservatives, environmentalists, faith groups, health professionals, and social justice activists oppose sham reform bill on eve of house farm bill vote.

Eight years after the government reached an agreement with black farmers over decades of discrimination, Democrats say the deal is broken and want to give farmers another chance at compensation.

The New York based Conference Board said this week its Consumer Confidence Index rebounded unexpectedly in May. Economists monitor the index closely since consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity.

The Senate is slowly but surely preparing for a debate on the next farm bill. In April, I held town hall meetings in 13 counties to talk with Iowans about the farm bill. Many Iowans and farmers brought up similar ag-related concerns. Farm payment limits, the commodity title, corn prices and renewable fuels seem to be on the minds of everybody. I brought their common-sense input back to Washington with me to go to work on the bill. I will remain committed to these issues and the principles I've laid out over the last several months. It's my hope that many of these proposals will be a part of the 2007 farm bill. Competition is the No. 1 issue facing agriculture today. Vertical integration leaves the independent producer with even fewer choices of who to buy from and sell to. Simply put, concentration hurts the ability of the family farmer to get a fair price for their products.

U.S. wheat farmers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd., alleging it paid bribes and kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime that cost wheat growers in America millions in lost sales.

Several U.S. wheat farmers recently filed a $125 million class action lawsuit against Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd., alleging they were prevented from selling their wheat products to Iraq because AWB was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime so that Iraq would deal solely with AMB, according to several Australian news articles, including the Melbourne Herald Sun.

AUSTRALIAN wheat exporter AWB Ltd will be forced to defend law suits on two continents after lawyers in both Sydney and New York yesterday lodged claims for a combined $125 million in damages over the Iraq kickback scandal.

Working people and the entire labor movement should back exploited farmers fighting for land, including African American producers. In addition to the exploitation under the capitalist rents and mortgages system all family farmers face, farmers who are Black face decades-old racist discrimination and have been driven off their land in disproportionate numbers.

More than 400 small farmers attended a February 8-10 conference here to discuss their fight for land and against racist discrimination by the U.S. government, banks, and big business. Most of the participants came from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. The event was organized by the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA), and attracted some other farmers and supporters from Florida, Iowa, Kansas, and Virginia.

As youth activist my first action in celebration of my 18th birthday was to register to vote with Helen Butler, executive director of the Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda. My mother took a picture and Mrs. Rita Samuels, the first Black woman to work in the Governor's office in Georgia under Governor and later President Jimmy Carter was also in the picture. Mrs. Samuels is the founder of the Georgia Coalition of Black Women and she is an ardent supporter of women, especially Black women. We talked about the election and we all expressed support for Senator Barack Obama for president.

More than 500 farmers, ranchers and landowners are expected to attend the 20007 National Black Farmers Association’s national conference Thursday, February 8 – 10, 2007 in Dallas. The two-day interactive program, hosted at Dallas’ Paul Quinn College, will focus on several issues of national importance to small farmers.

About 1.2 million or two-thirds of US farms have annual sales of $20,000 or less, and they produce about four percent of total farm sales. However, the largest 40,000 US farms, each with annual sales of $500,000 or more, accounted for 40 percent of US farm sales in 1993. The average age of US farmers is 58.