I am a farmer and a 'mutt' farmer at that. Full of Indigenous, black and European genetics. Aren't most of us today? I am sincerely tired of being eliminated over and over again in the past ten years on a growing basis based on my own "just a bit more white than brown" skin color, despite what lies beneath. I raised my children to not be racist and that the quality of the person UNDER the skin was far more important than the color OF the skin. We had been growing so far beyond racism and had been working on doing so for DECADES, and it's things like this that only exacerbate racism. You are ruining what we'd been working on for so, so long. The ag industry has grown nearly ludicrous with its emphasis on DEI and many of us have been skipped over for grants and loans and opportunities to grow our own farms due to race or age or sex, or, the most ludicrous of all, sexual preference. If the Dept of Ag keeps it up, we will soon be out of food, particularly given the age of the average farmer that they continue to trod on. I always held KA in high esteem. You fell to the bottom of the heap with these stunts and are showing how little you really think of BIPOC people. If they have skill and talent, they can compete just as well as anyone. If you create a playing field that is so narrow, it isn't a competitive playing field at all. You might as well just give BIPOC people a participatory trophy. People of color aren't stupid. Quit dummying them down.

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