Hey everybody my guest today is John Boyd.

John Wesley Boyd Jr. is an African American farmer,

civil rights activist, and the founder of the National Black Farmers Association.

He owns and operates Boyd Farm, which has 1,500 acres across three farms in

Baskerville, Virginia, where he grows soybean, corn, and wheat and currently raises 150 head of beef cattle.

For 14 years, Boyd was a chicken farmer for Purdue Farms Breeder Program.

He was also a tobacco farmer for many years. He is a fourth generation farmer and in 1995 he was a democratic nominee to Virginia's fifth district.

You have an extraordinary history and,

you know, an extraordinary history of representing America's

black farmers.

Can you give us some of the history and the history of black farmers? farmers. We're part of the 40 acres of the mule program after the Civil War, right?

And some of them have occupied those lands continuously since.

But there's also been a history of profound discrimination, which I'm aware of having lived two years in Alabama and met with a lot of the black farmers in that state.

And it's chiefly to do with the denial of of loans that are

available to white farmers by USDA there's a history of profound racism within

USDA as there is in other agencies like most notoriously the CDC but other agencies

as well.

Will you give us a little bit about the history of black farmers and then let's talk about your history as well, which is an extraordinary story?

Absolutely, and thank you so much for

having me and we really appreciate you right here making a run for president and

I hope things go well.

Thank you.

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