Market Facilitation Program—Interim Report
Report Information
Recommendations
Immediately discontinue the policy and practice of having employees determine producer race, ethnicity, and gender through visual assessment.
Update all relevant forms, handbooks, and notices to implement the requirements of the Departmental regulation for collecting only producer-provided race, ethnicity, and gender information and to allow producers the option of not providing that information.
Update the customer management data system used to collect race, ethnicity, and gender to document if producers decided to not provide their demographic information.
Once all demographic information collection forms are updated, use the appropriate form to update producer records in FSA’s customer management data system.
Evaluate the improperly collected data and determine how to manage it appropriately.