Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan is touring universities around the nation to encourage more students to get into agriculture. Last week she was in New Mexico, which has the highest average age of farmers in any state, and Arizona, which follows closely behind. "If we do not repopulate our working lands, I don't know where to begin to talk about the woes," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "There is a challenge here, a challenge that has a corresponding opportunity." Read more (Associated Press).