Greenlining's Blog

Giant Dutch Bank at Risk of Losing California Rural Market

A giant Netherlands’s bank, Rabobank, has $658 billion dollars in assets and recently announced a plan to dominate California rural and agricultural lending. But, this internationally respected bank has so far refused to include small minority farmers or minority farmowners in its plans.
We Are Not a Dutch Colony
Many small minority farmers have joined in protest with The Greenlining Institute. This includes:
- a formal protest with the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency for redlining the poor; and
- a February 26 protest at Rabobank’s Fresno office. Sixty-four Latino and Southeast Asian farmers, farmworkers and leaders, joined by a Hmong Band and a Mariachi Group, held signs, and shouted slogans in Dutch, Spanish, Hmong, and English, such as:

• We’re Not a Dutch Colony!;
• Help Small Farmowners;
• Help de armen (Dutch for ‘Help the Poor’);
• No ignoren a los trabajadores (‘Don’t Ignore the Workers’ in Spanish)
• Farmworkers Have Rights!;
• Children, Not Profits;
• We Count Too!;
• Help Farmworkers become Farmowners!;
• Don’t Ignore the Poor;
• Geen immigranten schoppen (Dutch for ‘Don’t kick the immigrants’) and;
• Nosotros Contamos Tambien, (‘We Count Too’ in Spanish).

Small minority farmers and farmworkers are requesting that Rabobank agree to a:
- 100 million dollar project to help small organic farmers and transform farmworkers into farmowners
- A 5 billion dollar CRA plan for low-income rural Californians.

Union Bank has recently welcomed these farmers to do business with them and Greenlining is in the process of declaring leadership relationships with B of A and Wells Fargo.
“If Rabobank won’t do business with us, we’ll block their future mergers and work with Union Bank, Wells Fargo, B of A, and Bank of The West,” said Thoulu Thao, the founder of The Hmong-American Political Association.
“Rabobank should stay out of the Central Valley, unless it is fully prepared to help those who need help. Just helping giant and polluting agribusiness is not enough,” said Ben Benavidez, State National President Emeritus of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA).

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