On Sept. 16, 2025, the Farm Service Agency announced it will no longer use a race- and sex-based “socially disadvantaged” designation to provide increased benefits through its Emergency Relief Program and Emergency Livestock Relief Program. The announcement followed a USDA rulemaking from July 10, 2025 that determined that the race and sex preferences used in these programs were unnecessary and that past discrimination had been adequately addressed. The rulemaking was made in response to a district court’s preliminarily injunction of race- and sex-based preferences in USDA relief programs, after white farmers challenged the USDA’s administration of disaster and pandemic relief funds. Strickland v. USDA, 736 F. Supp. 3d 469 (N.D. Tex. 2024).
Federal Environmental Justice Tracker