more farming news I never heard of:

In the 1997 many African American farmers sued the USDA for being denied loans needed to run their farms based on their race. The USDA admitted to this and agreed to pay these farmers millions of dollars. But, the money supposed to be paid to some late applying farmers this year has never been funded by congress before they left for their recess. This is quite sad as it further promotes the idea that farming is not an important occupation, when in fact it is the job that feeds the country.

Here's the story from NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125311885&ft=1&f=1001