James Minton, who’s approaching age 90, owns farmland to create wealth for his family.

It’s no question that Malcolm Jenkins has continuously been on the frontline in support of Black and brown entrepreneurs. Spearheading change through Broad Street Ventures, the first Black athlete-led venture capital fund, the two-time Super Bowl champion has been on go-mode since its launch. As previously reported by AfroTech, the $10 million investment fund further created space for Black and brown women after bringing India Robinson and Sara “Lovestyle” Hood on board as investors. Now, less than four months later, Jenkins is onto his next impactful venture under Malcolm Inc. — his holding company.

Small African farmers are facing a multitude of problems that affect the progress of agricultural production on the continent. But software-for-agriculture startup Khula has an innovative solution that’s helping this niche industry thrive again. TechCrunch reports that the South African-based company just announced the raise of a $1.3 million seed round to help further scale its farming software and expand nationwide. The round, which closed last year, was led by AECI — one of Africa’s biggest agrochemical companies — and included participation from South African impact investor E Squared Investments. With financial-backing from its lead investor, Khula now has access to AECI’s wide distribution network which is poised to help the platform scale its inputs app. AECI’s support will go a long way as a long-term partner that’s genuinely interested in the execution of the platform’s services. “Khula has very attractive fundamentals, a sizable addressable market, app development...

Here we go again. A Wisconsin federal judge has ordered a temporary stop to the $4 billion federal loan relief program created to address decades of injustice faced by Black farmers. The decision to halt the program is the response to white tears after a group of white farmers filed a legal challenge in which they claim to have been discriminated upon (the nerve, right?). Last Thursday Judge William Griesbach issued a temporary restraining order that in turn blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from moving forward with the relief payments. According to NBC News , Griesbach said that the white farmers are “likely to succeed on the merits of their claim,” that the USDA’s “use of race-based criteria in the administration of the program violates their right to equal protection under the law.” Black farmers like John W. Boyd say that years of work have been put into the bill just for white counterparts to try and shut it down…again. “I’ve been trying for decades to get this passed...

Greg Francis is an attorney who landed a $1.25 billion settlement for Black farmers, the largest settlement of its kind in American history. In his new book, “ Just Harvest: The Story of How Black Farmers Won the Largest Civil Rights Case against the U.S. Government, ” he details just how he managed to do that. “The one thing I learned from that case is that all those farmers wanted was a chance,” Greg Francis said to Black News. “They didn’t ask for anything extra. They just wanted to be treated, and to be given the same opportunities, as everyone else. That’s all any of us want.” The “Black Farmers Case,” as it’s known in legal circles, was a class-action civil rights case filed by more than 20,000 Black farmers, and their descendants. Their claim was based on the ongoing disparate treatment of Black Farmers across the United States — a disparity which the Biden administration is currently trying to take steps to ameliorate. Back in March 2021, the Biden administration announced...

Justice for Black farmers! Following the $4 billion debt relief for Black farmers, The New York Times reports that banks are fighting back noting that quick repayments will cut into profits. The institutions are complaining that the government’s initiative to pay off the loans of those Black farmers who have faced decades of financial discrimination will not only hurt investors but cut into the bank’s profits. In March, Congress passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package which includes the debt relief for the Black farmers and is intended to make things right for years of discrimination faced by all nonwhite farmers. Today, no money still has been received by those farmers. Aside from the drama with the banks, white farmers sued the U.S.D.A over the initiative claiming that they are victims of reverse discrimination. Now, three of the largest banking groups involved in the settlement have formed their own fight against the money that is rightfully owed to Black farmers. The American...

Backstage Capital is working to make farmland more accessible. FarmTogether is a technology-enabled investment platform that provides users with more access to farmland and today (May 4), they’ve announced a partnership with venture capital firm Backstage Capital with one goal in mind — increasing farmland investment properties to those who wish to utilize it. “As an asset class, U.S. farmland boasts a total value of $2.7 trillion,” said Backstage Capital’s Founder and Managing Partner, Arlan Hamilton in an exclusive press release shared with AfroTech. “Yet, only around 1% of the dollar value of all farms is financially backed or owned by funds, publicly traded companies, or high net-worth individuals. This has resulted in a highly fragmented and overlooked market.” The Backstage Capital investor community will soon have access to exclusive farmland investment properties which will capture both organizations’ shared values of not only accessibility but diversity and inclusivity too....

When one typically thinks of farmers, images of white people in Middle America almost immediately come to mind. There’s a variety of reasons why the United States wanted to push the quasi-stereotypical “Dust Bowl” image of the “All American” farmer, but those reasons are all, at their core, rooted in white supremacy and racism. For Angela Dawson, a fourth-generation farmer based in Minnesota and the founder of the 40 Acres cooperative, reclaiming the farming narrative for Black farmers also involves reclaiming the farms that were stripped away from them. “There is so much financial trauma embedded in the Black farming narrative,” she told AfroTech. “Foreclosure, racism, slavery, marginalization — and, of course, the lack of representation. What farmers look like us in the popular narrative? That’s why, whenever Congress passed a farming bill, it never included Black farmers. But that’s what we’re looking to change.” Dawson left her thriving career as a food writer and marketer to...