The US Department of Agriculture will allocate over half a billion dollars toward initiatives to help poor farmers and increase diversity in the agriculture industry, the agency will announce Wednesday
Just the mention of the word food can bring to mind varying images for Americans: a big dinner with family; a low-key night at home with pizza; children and families across the globe facing starvation; the behemoths of agribusiness; and the increasing interest and participation in local, sustainable farming and food production. .
Q and A: Fair Food Advocate Vanessa García Polanco - Rhode Island Monthly rimonthly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rimonthly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Originally published on March 15, 2021 10:08 am
Plenty of younger people are eager to build careers in farming, but more land up for grabs won’t necessarily make it easier to get started. Access to land and capital are two of the biggest hurdles facing first-generation farmers today, and some say they face an extra barrier to both student loan debt.
With lawmakers and President Biden mulling the merits of canceling some debt, farmers and advocates say loan forgiveness could make it easier for millennial farmers to build their businesses.
“We know like good farmland is in rural areas, but there are not good jobs that can pay for all the student debt that you have in rural communities,” says Vanessa Garcia Polanco, a federal policy associate with the National Young Farmers Coalition.