John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA), said he’s calling out PepsiCo for discrimination after a year and a half of talks that produced no contract.

Boyd claims that PepsiCo, a multinational company that produces food and beverages, had made a verbal agreement with the NBFA.

In a press release on Jan. 27, Boyd said white farmers are given an opportunity to do business with the $70 billion company while Black farmers are now being told that the company intends to “move in another direction.”

He said that when PepsiCo decided to change the Aunt Jemima figure in their brand image in 2020, they reached out to the NBFA, but nothing has happened since.

As the producer of the potato chip brand Ruffles, Frito’s corn chips, Doritos and Quaker Oats, PepsiCo contracts to get the raw materials: potatoes, corn and grains.

“PepsiCo indicated they wanted to do business with NBFA members,” Boyd said. “The company insisted that our growers share personal information through our national database. A year and a half later, when NBFA growers met all the required elements for a potato delivery contract, the company’s executives apparently had lost interest in keeping its part of the bargain.”

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“Our livelihood and financial stability are at stake,” Boyd said. “Some Black farmers have actually lost their farms amid this treatment.”

Boyd, who says he is a shareholder in PepsiCo, announced he will seek a solution for the NBFA from PepsiCo’s CEO and chairman.

This report is courtesy of the National Black Farmers’ Association website. For more information, go to http://blackfarmers.org

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