RANGEfire! | Government program aims to “queer” American agriculture

The Daily Signal 

Mary Grace Byers

EXCLUSIVE: Federal Farm Credit Agency Plows Ahead With DEI, ‘Queer’ Farming

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A regulatory agency established during the Great Depression to help farmers financially recover from the Dust Bowl is now pushing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility standards and promoting transgender farming.

The Farm Credit Administration, an independent agency that oversees the Farm Credit System to provide credit to farmers and ranchers, issued a newsletter for employees titled “DEIA for All,” which The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

The newsletter, released quarterly, challenges employees to examine their “implicit bias” with tests to gain self-awareness and “ensure that diversity and inclusion continues to thrive at FCA.”

It also encourages employees to learn about the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in agriculture and to be proud of the ways FCA contributes to “equity in farming.”

The memo reads, “FCA supports the System’s mission to serve young, beginning, and small (YBS) farmers, ranchers, and producers and harvesters of aquatic products. It’s not unlikely that a portion of LGBTQI+ farmers would be YBS borrowers. They would require constructive credit and financially related services from the System, so it’s nice to think that we can have a hand in the contribution toward their success.”

One of the articles that the Farm Credit Administration links to for further reading, “The Queer Farmers Reimagining American Agriculture,” suggests that LGBTQ farmers can improve American agriculture in ways that their “straight, cis counterparts” cannot.

The article quotes a “queer farmer” named Coco Faria, who talks about “queering the systems of capitalism.”

“For me,” says Faria, “queering the systems of capitalism means that, when I have a farm, making sure people are being paid a living wage, versus just minimum wage.”

Employees are also given the option of taking DEIA courses to learn about “subtle acts of inclusion and allyship” and to earn badges that demonstrate support for the agency’s DEIA principles.

Under the leadership of Vincent Logan—the first openly gay FCA board chairman and CEO, who was appointed by President Joe Biden—the agency is making DEIA a priority.

The newsletter references Biden’s Executive Order 14035, “Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce,” which Biden signed in June 2021.

Section 1 of the executive order states:

As the Nation’s largest employer, the Federal Government must be a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, where all employees are treated with dignity and respect. Accordingly, the Federal Government must strengthen its ability to recruit, hire, develop, promote, and retain our Nation’s talent and remove barriers to equal opportunity.

It must also provide resources and opportunities to strengthen and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility across the Federal Government. The Federal Government should have a workforce that reflects the diversity of the American people. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workplaces yield higher-performing organizations.

The end goal is to “embed” the principles of DEIA into the federal workforce, according to the newsletter.

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