Bill Clinton: “You know, there's another issue that you alluded to there that I don't have an answer to, but I worked on it quite a lot…”

“You know, there's another issue that you alluded to there that I don't have an answer to, but I worked on it quite a lot when I was a Governor, and that is the whole question of the small number of young farmers, unless there are just young farmers that farm their parents' land, and it's all paid for, and they've got their debt paid down. The average age of a farmer is pushing 60, just on the near side of 60. That looks younger to me all the time--[laughter]--but still it doesn't quite qualify as young. We spent a lot of time when I was a Governor trying to work out financing operations and some other things for first-time farmers. Secretary Espy and I spent a good deal of time talking about that. Maybe this is not a discussion for tonight because we're all here worried about the floods, but if you had any specific ideas about kinds of initiatives we might undertake or partnerships for the States for first- time farmers to get young people in or help them get through those first rough years if they've got some accumulated mortgage or other debt, I'd really like to know it, because I think it's a pretty serious social problem for this country to have the average age of farmers going up every year and almost no young farmers coming in. [Governor Branstad suggested that a law regarding use of tax-exempt bonds to finance State farm loan programs be made permanent or at least extended.]”