California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom’s “agricultural equity” advisers are finalizing recommendations for the state to redistribute farmland to non-white Californians and Native American tribes through land transfers and financial assistance programs that exclusively benefit racial minorities. [emphasis, links added]
For more than two years, the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force—part of Newsom’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation—has crafted a set of policy recommendations to “equitably increase agricultural land access.”
It will deliver a final report to Newsom and the California legislature, cementing those recommendations by the end of the year.
The task force’s latest draft report, published ahead of the task force’s August meeting earlier this month, calls to deploy state resources to give non-white Californians a leg up in acquiring farmland, an effort it portrays as a form of reparations.
The report says California should gift large amounts of state-owned lands to Native Americans, adopt indigenous knowledge practices for land management, and provide low-interest loans, downpayment assistance, and grants to fund land acquisition to black farmers.
Those and other policies, according to the task force, will help solve California’s “agricultural land equity crisis.”
Land ownership statistics prove such discrimination exists, according to the report, which laments that “82% of privately held farmland in California is owned by producers who identify as white.”
“The wealth of the U.S., including that of its agriculture industry, has been built on stolen land and the forced labor of California Tribal Nations, enslaved African Americans, and other exploited communities, who have been systematically excluded from land ownership and wealth-building opportunities,” the report says.
“Addressing these past and continuing harms requires active efforts to ensure that all people have secure and affordable access to viable land for the care and cultivation of food, fiber, medicine, and culturally valuable resources, free from systemic barriers and racial disparities.”
California Farmers are in great distress. Newsome stole the fire victims donations, so they can’t afford to rebuild.. then sent them huge tax bills and violation notices.. to steal their land.. planned before fires.. evidence? Search palesades smart city.. search open canals in…
— Bonnie Baby🌹George my Daddy (@BonnieBabyLovie) August 14, 2025
The initiative marks the latest left-wing attempt to pursue reparations through the agriculture industry.
The Biden administration and congressional Democrats, for example, allocated $5 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act to grant loan forgiveness to non-white farmers, though that initiative was held up in the courts.
In a separate program, the administration authorized more than $2 billion in payments to non-white farmers and ranchers whose applications for loans had been rejected by the USDA—rejections that the Biden administration chalked up to racial discrimination.
The initiative also comes as Newsom attempts to distance himself from some left-wing social positions ahead of a widely expected presidential run in 2028.
Newsom in March criticized the term “Latinx,” mocked Democrats who introduce themselves with their pronouns, and said it’s “deeply unfair” for biological men to play in women’s sports.
At the same time, his administration has pursued some of the nation’s most aggressive DEI policies.
While the Agricultural Land Equity Task Force doesn’t recommend cash payments to Native American and black landowners, it does call for similarly aggressive measures.
Citing the colonization of California by Europeans, the task force’s draft report concludes that Native Americans should receive tens of thousands of acres of land from the state government.
It recommends that the state fund programs to support land return and acquisition for tribes.
And it calls on the state to offer financial incentives to exclusively benefit minority landowners, including a low-interest, forgivable loan program and a downpayment assistance program.
Top photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
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