Student loan forgiveness proposed for young farmers

WASHINGTON – Jamie Wilbraham graduated from college with a degree in international development and environmental studies, $25,000 in student loans, and a desire to make a difference.

“I was sick of theory and didn’t know how to actually do something,” said Wilbraham, now 28.

She found her mission on a farm in Kentucky where she apprenticed, before getting jobs on farms in Pennsylvania.

Wilbraham and her husband are now in the first year of running their own farm business — Full Hollow Farm in Belding.

Although she paid as much as she could on her student loans while learning how to farm, the remaining debt will make it difficult to expand from their two acres of fruits and vegetables to the 12 acres they’d like to operate.

“There’s just so much money up front that you need,” she said.

A loan forgiveness proposal recently introduced in Congress would help young farmers like Wilbraham.

Farmers would be added to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program that already offers breaks for certain teachers, law enforcement officers and other public service professionals.

Outstanding loan balances would be forgiven after 10 years of making income-based payments.

The National Young Farmers Coalition contends the program would help address the problem of not enough students graduating from land grant universities — one of the original purposes of the schools — to meet the need.

“People are interested in eating food that is grown in the United States of America, and this would achieve that,” said Lindsey Lusher Shute, the group’s executive director and cofounder.

Kelly Millenbah, associated dean of Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, has seen an uptick in interest from students in agriculture and environmental programs.

“We also know that we’re not producing enough graduates to fill the workforce demands,” she said.

At a recent meeting Millenbah attended, a representative from the job site agcareers.com said they have twice as many job postings as applicants.

Michael Langemeier, agriculture economics professor at Purdue University, said it’s difficult to quantify if there are enough graduates. That’s because graduates have a lot of options now.

“There’s enough people but there is a high demand for people with those backgrounds to work in agribusiness,” Langemeier said. “They have a tough choice to make, whether they want to go back to the farm or work in an agribusiness.”

Wanting to farm, and being able to pay for it, are two different things.

Land can cost $3,000 to $12,000 an acre and a new combine goes for $500,000, said Jim Hilker, a Michigan State agriculture economics professor.

“We have plenty of people that want to go into farming,” he said. “The biggest problem most often is, do they have parents or somebody who already has the bulk of the capital?”

Hilker said he doubts the loan forgiveness program would attract a lot more people into farming. But it could help the ones who do get on their feet faster.

Lindsey Burke, an education policy expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said loan forgiveness programs for any profession are a bad idea. Such programs encourage schools to raise tuition, knowing that taxpayers will pay off the loans that are forgiven for some students, she said.

The Young Farmer Success Act of 2015, introduced last month by GOP Rep. Chris Gibson of New York, has only seven cosponsors.

Beth Akers, a higher education expert at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, recently told Congress the share of young households with education debt has more than doubled over the past two decades. While the average student will see a larger financial return on the dollars they spend on higher education, Akers testified before the Senate education committee, some students will find their investment won’t pay off.

Gibson said farmers are among those who should be helped if needed because “our farmers not only produce our food and fiber, they protect the landscape and generate substantial economic activity in every state.”

Burke, however, said farmers don’t need a college degree to do that. She said the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that “traditionally, experience growing up on or working on a family farm or ranch is the way farmers and ranchers learn their trade.”

Millenbah said MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is attracting a lot of students from urban and suburban backgrounds. They’re “discovery majors” who are coming with a different skill set than children of farmers.

“This is a generation that’s really interested in making a difference, essentially having an impact,” she said. “And they want to be passionate about the work that they’re doing.”

That description fits Wilbraham. She grew up not on a farm, but in Grand Rapids, and was looking for more than just a paycheck from her career.

“For me, it was very much not wanting to just go into a job to make money but to do something that I care about that could benefit other people and that people need,” she said. “It’s a pretty basic thing.”

Brian Tumulty of USA TODAY contributed to this report.