New Jersey's Farmers lost out on millions in federal aid during the pandemic according to analysis done by NJ Advance media fewer than 2 in 10 New Jersey Farmers received federal assistance compared to 9 in 10 farmers in Midwestern states like Iowa Illinois and Nebraska in short it's because the aid was doled out using an existing Farm formula which favors states with larger agribusiness the situation is especially frustrating for New Jersey's small population of black farmers who have traditionally been left out of federal Farm assistance and lending now U.S senator Cory Booker is pushing legislation to give black Farmers those same opportunities Raven Santana has a look at Booker's Justice for black Farmers act and how it aims to reverse Decades of discrimination be able to put up half of it Joe bartee has been in the farming business for more than four decades bartee co-owns k j organic farms in Pittsgrove Township with his grandson Kenneth since 2019 where they specialize in fresh organic produce the 79 year olds is also won a few black farmers in the area two that's it that's it just two two black farmers were like just as hard as they do or harder we should be treated Fair equally however bartee says he and his grandson aren't treated equally and he shared some challenges he recently has faced being a black farmer I had a broker at the Philadelphia Food Center they were getting me great prices so what's Friday I was off I decided to go up to the market and look around and I met the broker and when he seen me he said oh you're Joe bartee I said yes and he gave me this bad look and from that point on he could not move my produce it always was an excuse the market is dead there's nothing moving and all this nearly two decades after a class action lawsuit led by black Farmers against the U.S department of Agriculture was settled bartee says nothing has changed when going out to sell his crops oftentimes he received bids lower than market price or would failed to secure any bids on them as a result he needed to take out government loans but says he wasn't able to borrow as much as he really needed just just this past year we had uh string beans we put them up for sale 206 bushels no bed was on the market was 29 30 for bushel we didn't get a bed next day we put them up no bed the third day we put them up we got a bit of fifteen dollars during the fourth day we put them up we got a bed of ten dollars and that's been the practice for the whole 47 years that I've been working with farming if we don't pay for for your supplies then nobody else gets paid so they left me in the hole to lose that land um was not just an economic crime but a moral one as well Senator Cory Booker is the lead sponsor of the justice for black Farmers act which he recently reintroduced along with six of his fellow Senators the legislation aims to address and correct historic discrimination within Federal Pharmacists and lending at the U.S department of Agriculture so our bill is going to allow existing black Farmers as well as a new generation of black Farmers uh to have access to that program uh that they were denied Generations ago in 1920 there were nearly one million black farmers in the United States today due in large part to this history of discrimination Booker says it's estimated that there are less than 50 000 remaining black Farmers American Dreams destroyed of people who were hard-working Americans playing by the rules who are undercut undermined and targeted with this kind of racial discrimination we as a country especially because this is a specific measurable harm we should be focused on trying to right the wrongs of this chapter of American history for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana