David Scott Sets Racial Justice, Meals Security, and Climate Improve as Priorities for Property Ag

On Tuesday, just a working day following Congress eventually handed a 3rd COVID-19 relief package and two times just before Xmas, Congressman David Scott (D-Georgia) was eager to equally mirror on the past and approach for the long term.

The 75-12 months-previous representative started by describing his grandparents’ South Carolina farm the place he was born and afterwards picked cotton, fed the hogs, and milked the cows. (“You title it, I did it.”) He recalled afterwards living in Scarsdale, New York, with his mother and father, where by he was “the only Black kid in the total city.” Quickly forward to his first run for Congress in 2002 (immediately after 28 decades as a point out legislator), and he remembered knocking on doorways in Ga at a time when voters have been fighting to keep the Accomplice fight flag emblem on their state flag.

The way that Scott’s Black identity has shaped his route ahead is a continual in all of these stories. So it’s no surprise that as incoming Chairman of the Residence Agriculture Committee, he’s ready to prioritize justice for Black farmers who have for many years faced discrimination within the two the agriculture business and federal government businesses.

The Household Agriculture Committee is liable for producing and analyzing foods and farm guidelines and offering oversight on farm programs as nicely as nutrition courses like the Supplemental Nourishment Assistant System (SNAP). It also drafts a variation of the 1-every-5 12 months farm bill and is effective with the Senate Agricultural committee to comprehensive a last bill. Scott replaces Collin Peterson, the Minnesota Democrat and lengthy-time committee member who dropped re-election in November.

Scott signifies element of Atlanta and its suburbs and is normally regarded as a centrist Democrat. In 2018 Farm Invoice negotiations, he efficiently fought to maximize funding for traditionally Black land-grant universities, a provision he explained he hopes to make lasting in the upcoming Farm Invoice.

But ideal now, when Scott thinks about the near long run, it’s loaded with hearings. He continuously emphasized that his staff was by now in the method of placing up numerous that would materialize within just the very first 4 to 5 months of his phrase, on important problems.

For Scott, receiving Black farmers, associates of foodstuff banks, and researchers in entrance of Congress to talk about the most pressing issues in the meals system—many of which have been exacerbated by COVID-19—is a vital first step in creating good policy responses.

“In phrases of receiving this pandemic at the rear of us, we simply cannot do it with no building certain our meals supply chain is in position. And we can’t do it if people don’t have cash in their pockets to acquire the foods,” he claimed.

In an distinctive job interview with Civil Eats, Scott described some of his priorities and plans.