National coalition helps train veterans in agriculture

Over the last decade, 2 million men and women have left the military only to face dismal employment rates and a lack of career opportunity. According to the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, 45 percent of these individuals come from and returned to rural America, a startlingly large percentage considering only 1/6 of the American population calls the countryside home. Besides experiencing an overwhelming influx of young, unemployed veterans, these small, agrarian communities are watching their farmers age out of the industry. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, the average American farmer is 57, with two retiring for every one entering the field. It was the convergence of these two forces that inspired the creation of the Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC), a Davis, Calif.-based nonprofit that helps returning veterans start careers in agriculture, and in turn helps cultivate the next generation of American farmers. Chris Whitaker, 26, understands the interplay between returning vets and aging farmers intimately. Before joining the army after high school, he worked his family’s farm in Stockton, Calif. “When I was a teenager, all the farmers I would meet up with before harvest were older than me by at least 40 years,” he said. “I thought, what’s going to happen when they want to retire? This is a huge food security issue.” When Chris returned to the San Joaquin Valley after serving 15 months in Iraq, he and his dad immediately set to implementing the idea that they had been discussing whenever Chris had called home– to turn their traditional farm into a Community Supported Agriculture community farm. They attended an eco-farms conference and it was here that they met Michael O’Gorman, a longtime farmer and the man who would eventually found VFC. “When I first met Michael,” Chris remembers, “he was somewhat associated with an organization that had a good core concept, but had way too much of a political agenda and anti-war stance for me. But he was talking about starting up his own organization, and I was interested.” A chance meeting at a second conference gave the men a chance to really brainstorm: “I told Michael, if you can push all the political crap aside and instead just focus on farmers helping veterans and veterans learning how to farm, then you can create a really great transition system and support network. It doesn’t matter if the war’s good or bad or whatever, it’s just people helping people.” O’Gorman, now executive director of FVC, agreed. For him, it was the undeniable link between returning veterans and the agricultural industry that motivated FVC. “We kind of put two and two together and thought, we have an aging population of farmers and we’re in dire need of young people going into agriculture, so why not reach out to our young veterans who have already shown that they have a sense of service, a willingness to work hard and an attraction to challenge?” he said. The now 2-year-old nonprofit hopes to help .5 percent of all veterans (approximately 10,000) who have left the service in the past decade establish careers in agriculture. In the beginning, FVC’s support consisted mainly of mentorship programs, educational resources, and job placement services. But, after successfully unraveling a tight knot of the IRS’ red tape, FVC now can accept donations of cash, seeds, fertilizers, irrigation supplies, farm equipment and breeding stock of animals into a Fellowship Fund, and distribute those supplies directly to farmer-veterans. The Fellowship Fund launched April 1, 2011, a date Spokane’s Kim Davidson had been anxiously anticipating. Kim is the president of Davidson Commodities, Inc., a small Spokane grain-trading company that her father started in 1990, and which she and her brother, Matt, now run. The needs of returning vets are not foreign to the Davidson family – both of Kim and Matt’s grandfathers served in World War II, they have a cousin in the Air Force, and Kim has a nephew who recently enlisted in the Army. Plus, she says, “we live in an Air Force town.” It is no surprise then, that with this ag-veteran nexus already at play in her own life, Kim was moved when she read about FVC’s mission in Organic Garden magazine. “I contacted Michael immediately and told him we wanted to help.” Unfortunately, Kim’s enthusiasm had to be put on hold while FVC decoded the complicated regulations for re-gifting, but with the proper apparatus now in place, Davidson Commodities can begin donating its unique product, Mighty Mustard, directly to veterans. “It’s a way for us to thank our veterans once again for serving our country in a whole new way, by growing food,” Kim says. The Davidsons anticipate that Mighty Mustard, a biofumigant cover crop (available locally at Sun People Dry Goods), will be most attractive to veteran/farmers who are interested in organic and sustainable food production. The mustard seed’s high concentration of a chemical agent called glucosinolate is the secret to its weed and pathogen killing power and to the mustard’s spiciness. Developed at the University of Idaho, the seed is intended to eliminate the need for herbicides and pesticides. Once grown, the mustard plant helps redistribute nitrogen in the soil, guard against erosion, sequester carbon, and increase organic matter. At some point, Chris Whitaker says he would definitely be interested in giving Mighty Mustard a try on his family’s community farm, Fresh Edibles. But for now, he is focused on taking care of his aging grandmother in Everett, Wash., and getting his bachelor’s degree in humanities. Unsure of the exact direction his life will take, Chris is certain that he will always remain connected to FVC and to his family’s farm. “My generation of veterans needs to see that returning to their agricultural roots is a viable option. They need to know when they come home that they don’t have to take an office job in a big city.”