January 20, 2010
The centerpiece of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness option that allows individuals employed in certain public service areas to have any remaining loan debt discharged after 10 years of repayment. It also allows participants to utilize the Income Based Repayment schedule during those 10 years to inspire people to go into under-served and low earning, not-for-profit or community sustaining fields. Farming, with it’s aging participants, low on-farm income earning capacity and importance to local communities, regions and the country at large, is a perfect employment area to be added to the list of professions eligible for forgiveness.
Income Based Repayment (IBR) prevents payments on federal student loans from exceeding 15% of a borrower’s disposable income above 150% of the poverty level. This plan also allows for the government to subsidize 3 years of interest payments and to have any remaining debt erased after 25 years. It is the combination of IBR with Public Service Loan forgiveness that might allow more young people to look at farming as a viable career.
For example, under the most common farm financial circumstances (based on USDA statistics):
A farm family of four, with on-farm income of $10,000 and student loans totaling $45,000 at an interest rate of 6.8%:
Under IBR with Public Service Loan Forgiveness, the same family:
This repayment schedule, Income Based Repayment coupled with Public Service Loan Forgiveness, is the best option for young, beginning, and new entry farmers. We need to reach out to our elected officials and help them recognize how beneficial Student Loan Forgiveness could be to the profession of farming and the future of agriculture.
I recently contacted my elected officials to propose that farming become one of the areas of employment eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The following are the nuts and bolts of the request but you can find a sample letter that can be tailored to your own personal circumstances here.
If you are in need of assistance with repaying or dispatching your student loan, or simply care about the future of agriculture in this country, please take the time to contact your representatives and let them know that they can help build financial security for a new generation of farmers, and by extension their communities, by adding farming to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan.
May 23, 2023
The harassment, abuse, and sometimes death of the marine observers who uphold sustainable seafood standards are the industry’s worst-kept secrets. Critics say the people and companies that earn the most money on tuna aren’t doing enough to secure their well-being.
Unfortunately, changes like this will simply be "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" unless the fundamental threat posed by the proposed inappropriate, self-styled "food safety" federal regulation is stopped by substantially revising the legislation. S 510, and the even worse HR 2749, will not only cause those already becoming sustainable farmers to be unable to make a full-time living farming but also won't materially improve the overall safety of food in the US. In fact, because the regs will be more expensive and difficult for sustainable ag to implement than industrial ag, S 510/HR 2749 will further tighten industrial ag's control of our food system.
I know this to be true because after 14+ years working to revive local, healthy food her in western NC, I have had to spend the last 6 months endeavoring to understand this complex situation and legislation.
For more info or to help, please write me at healthyfoodcoalition@gmail.com