Audio Story By Elaina James
Elaina James
Every morning at 5 o’clock, 75-year-old farmer Stanley Hughes begins his work day. As he walks down his gravel driveway, he’s greeted by the chickens and the song of cicadas; accompanied by his loyal dog Lola. He’s surrounded by the 125-acres of Pine Knot Farms in Hurdle Mills. The farm has belonged to his family for more than a century.
His earliest memories are of looking up to his siblings, longing to do what he calls a “man’s job.”
Stanley Hughes
“When my brother would be plowing I’d run up under him and grab the handles to the plow and try to be plow.”
Elaina James
Stanley’s grandfather, Fletcher Hughes, a former sharecropper, bought the farm in 1912. Stanley grew up on the land alongside his father, Bennie “Bun” Hughes and his mother Addie Hughes. He was the youngest of twelve children.
Farmland like Pine Knot Farms is increasingly threatened because of Urban expansion. According to a report by The American Farmland Trust, the state could lose more than 1 million acres of farmland by 2040. This issue is compounded for Black farmers, who are only 1.3 percent of the country’s farmers.
Sandi Kronick is the CEO and co-founder of the Durham-based organic distribution company Happy Dirt which supports local farms.
Sandi Kronick
“Black farmers in America — especially Black vegetable farmers, and especially black organic farmers — are very sadly, but absolutely an endangered species.”
Elaina James
Everything Stanley grows is organic.
Stanley runs the farm with his wife of 16 years, Linda Hughes. She’s his complement and describes herself as type A. She’s responsible for the budget, the scheduling, and the marketing of the farm.
Linda Hughes
“We do everything by hand in packaging and we clean everything like we wash our greens.… My husband likes to say his reputation is to have it pot ready”
Track
Many farmers depend heavily on the U-S-D-A’s credit and benefit programs. These programs, however, have often been biased against Black farmers, and Stanley said he was frequently denied loans.
Elaina James
In 1997 Timothy Pigford, a Black farmer from Cumberland, North Carolina, was joined by 400 additional Black farmer plaintiffs, including Stanley, in filing a lawsuit against the USDA. The lawsuit claimed that the USDA unfairly allocated price support loans, disaster payments, “farm ownership” loans, and operating loans to Black farmers.
The case was settled in 1999, resulting in The Pigford consent decree, which would provide those seeking relief loan forgiveness, offsets of tax liability, and a monetary settlement of $50,000 each.
Stanley Hughes
“The ones that got to $50,000 didn’t owe no money. They gave them $50,000. But somebody like me that owed them money and some more farmers who owed them money, we didn’t see a single dime plus we got foreclosed on with our land.”
Elaina James
According to a study by the American Bar Association, by 1997, Black farmers lost more than 90 percent of the 16 million acres they once owned in 1910, largely due to discriminatory loan practices.
Stanley Hughes
“After they loan you money to get in business they didn’t keep their word to help.”
Elaina James
The Hughes say they also experienced discrimination when selling and pricing their products at market. Linda says they rely on grant money to purchase equipment, but they are never able to afford brand new machinery.
They say they receive a constant stream of offers to purchase the farm. These offers ask that Stanley sign his home, his livelihood, and his legacy away, never considering the work it took to get here.
Linda Hughes
“As long as breath is in our bodies–these two bodies here– none of this land will never ever get sold.”
Elaina James
In Hurdle Mills, I’m Elaina James.
