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On March 11, Sedrick Rowe, a young, Black farmer from Albany, Georgia, will testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry in a hearing titled Perspectives From the Field: Risk Management, Credit, and Rural Business Views on the Agricultural Economy Part 3. Rowe, a first-generation organic peanut producer and community leader, will share his firsthand experience navigating the challenges of accessing credit and risk management programs essential for beginning farmers.
“As a young farmer, I’ve had to fight every step of the way to secure land, financing, and reliable insurance,” said Rowe in his prepared testimony. “While federal programs exist to support farmers, too many barriers still keep young and beginning farmers—especially farmers of color—from getting the assistance they need to start and sustain successful farm businesses. Congress has an opportunity to change that.”
Rowe operates Rowe Organic Farms, a 30-acre farm in Albany, GA, where he cultivates organic peanuts, watermelons, sunflowers, and hemp. He is one of the pioneering farmers in Georgia’s organic peanut market and a founding member of the Georgia Organic Peanut Association (GOPA), which works to create market opportunities for small and medium-sized farmers. In addition to farming, Rowe serves as a leader in agricultural policy and education, working with the Soil Health Institute and pursuing a Ph.D. at Tuskegee University in Integrated Bioscience.
During the hearing, Rowe will highlight the difficulties that young farmers face in accessing credit through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), including restrictive collateral requirements, income assessments that do not account for the financial realities of startup farm businesses, and the harmful impact of student loan debt on loan eligibility. He will also discuss the urgent need to expand and improve risk management programs, such as Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP), to better support diversified small- and mid-scale farms.
“The next Farm Bill is our best opportunity to fix these systemic barriers,” Rowe writes. “If Congress does not act, young farmers will continue to struggle to access the resources they need, jeopardizing the future of American agriculture.”
Rowe will urge lawmakers to prioritize policies that:
- Expand credit access by reforming FSA loan programs to be more flexible and accessible to beginning farmers.
- Strengthen crop insurance by increasing enrollment incentives for small farms and making revenue-based options more widely available.
- Invest in community-based solutions that help young farmers access land, credit, and markets through local partnerships.
Rowe’s testimony comes at a critical moment in the ongoing Farm Bill negotiations as Congress debates the future of federal farm programs. His voice adds to the growing call from young farmers and agricultural advocates for policies that ensure the long-term viability of the next generation of farmers and ranchers.
The hearing will be live-streamed on the Senate Agriculture Committee’s website at 2:30pm ET.
The National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers) is a national grassroots network of young farmers changing policy and shifting power to equitably resource the new generation of working farmers. Visit Young Farmers on the web at www.youngfarmers.org.
