Farmer Lending Law, Recent USDA Developments, for Cooperative Professionals
This webinar will focuses on two main topics. First, it discusses the basics of how debtor-creditor law works in practice for farmers that face financial difficulty, a topic which is of increasing importance. It reviews briefly real estate lending and creditor remedies in case of a default, equipment and operating lending and the remedies usually available for creditors for those debts, as well as actions taken when farmers have unsecured debt. The role of bankruptcy as a backdrop to farmer options, as well as the crucial role that various forms of collateral take in farm lending, is also discussed. In addition, the webinar will discuss briefly increasing interest in collective land ownership as a remedy for difficulties in land access for farmers and those who hope to farm. Second, the webinar reviews some recent developments at USDA. While tariffs and immigrant labor issues are prominent in the news, other changes at USDA are likely to affect farmers significantly. This includes significant shifts in the way civil rights are understood in the Department. USDA’s long history of discrimination is thought by the current administration to be over, and changes iin policy are taking place without much public discussion. In particular, the webinar reviews significant changes in USDA’s understanding of civil rights and discrimination in USDA farm programs and at litigation concerning discrimination in USDA programs.
Stephen Carpenter is Deputy Director and Senior Staff Attorney at Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG). FLAG is a nonprofit law firm that works on behalf of family farmers.
At FLAG, Stephen’s work has centered on discrimination in agricultural lending, debtor-creditor issues for farmers, urban farmland access, Covid-19 and disaster assistance, legal issues for beginning farmers, federal farm and farm loan programs, problems of farmers contracting for carbon capture and for livestock production, sustainable agriculture, and farmer direct marketing. In addressing these issues Stephen has worked closely with dozens of grassroots farm organizations. He also served as Senior Counsel in the Office of the Monitor in the Pigford case and as the court-appointed Ombudsman for the In re Black Farmers Discrimination case.
Stephen has conducted frequent FLAG trainings and webinars for farmers, advocates, and attorneys and has spoken to farmers and their advocates in more than forty states. He has authored and edited a number of FLAG publications. Law review writing discusses rebellious lawyering on behalf of farmers, discrimination by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), discrimination litigation against USDA, the future of agricultural law, lawyering for family farmers in poverty, and sustainable agriculture. Other academic writing discusses federal farm policy, populist farm protest, and equality in agriculture.
Stephen is a graduate of Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, and of Stanford Law School. In law school, Stephen was a Stanford Law Review Executive Editor and received a Skadden Foundation Fellowship that brought him to FLAG in 1993.
Stephen has served on several academic advisory committees and on the board of several community organizations. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. In 2020, Stephen received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Agricultural Law Association.
MCLE will be provided for California. CPG thanks the Sustainable Economies Law Center for being the MCLE sponsor.
