One of the NCTA’s partners in the program is the USDA, which has numerous initiatives for young ranchers and farmers – but to date has implemented few veteran-specific programs. That has begun to change. In its current form, the Farm Bill (S. 3240) – the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012 – now in Congress, contains several provisions designed to create opportunities for veterans: microloan and grant programs, outreach and technical assistance, veterans set-asides for its conservation programs, and, significantly, the creation of a Military Veterans Agricultural Liaison within the USDA’s Office of Advocacy and Outreach. If the bill becomes law, the liaison will educate veterans about farming, work to connect them with agricultural training programs, and advocate for them at USDA.
Food Security is National Security
The return of many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to agriculture is easily explainable on the microeconomic level: Once home, they’re more likely to be unemployed than civilians or other veterans, and given the shortage of agricultural labor, the choice to farm makes sense.
A disabled veteran of Operation Desert Shield, Edward Avegalio stands in front of his farm in Pavaiai, American Samoa, June 6, 2012. Avegalio’s farm provides locally grown, fresh produce to area schools, local restaurants, and stores. Avegalio received a loan from the USDA Farm Service Agency that provided access to credit to create a hydroponic operation that incorporates a vertical-stack method, increasing the farm’s acreage while providing Avegalio with accessibility. USDA photo
But for Burke and other veteran farmers, the choice goes much deeper than that. When Colin Archipley, a Marine infantry sergeant who served three tours in Iraq, returned home to the decrepit 3-acre avocado farm he and his wife, Karen, had purchased in the hills north of San Diego, he decided to abandon his former real estate career. The Archipleys drilled a well, built greenhouses, and launched an organic produce farm, Archi’s Acres™. To preserve water – a scarce and expensive resource in Southern California – they built an elaborate hydroponic system that grows plants from a slurry of water and nutrients that recirculated through a network of plastic pipes.
Archipley returned home with symptoms common among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans: mild brain trauma, headaches, sleep disturbances, and anxiety. He felt lucky to have a quiet place to heal and rediscover a sense of purpose, and he decided to share in his good fortune. In 2006, in partnership with the local college and the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) at Camp Pendleton, the Archipleys launched the Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program, an intensive six-week course offering trainees instruction in hydroponics, drip/micro irrigation, soil biology, environmental control, and business development. As with many veteran agriculture programs, VSAT encourages ownership: One of the outcomes of the course is a business plan, presented to a panel of industry leaders and potential investors, and several participants have launched their own businesses.
More than 100 veterans have graduated from VSAT so far, and gone on to own farms, work in soil analysis, own or work in restaurants, and establish food companies. VSAT’s success, in fact, has inspired a second wave: As graduates and partners disperse to establish their own farms, some are paying it forward, launching their own VSAT programs.
The Farmer Veteran Coalition, in cooperation with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, hosted the “Coming Home to Farm” Retreat in Elkins Park, Pa., on the weekend of Aug. 19-21, 2011. This was the last in a yearlong series of events funded by the USDA Risk Management Agency intended to introduce new veteran farmers to various areas of agriculture and risk management practices. Farmer Veteran Coalition photo
Colin Archipley will tell you he’s grateful for the peace and quiet his three acres offered him upon his return from the war. But he’s also a Marine – intense, articulate, and mission-focused – who sees his role as a sustainable farmer in terms of national security. “If you look at a map of instability throughout the world and then you look at a map of food shortages or food hunger, those maps are almost the same,” he said. “The No. 1 use of water in the United States is energy production. So to be energy independent, we have to use less water for agriculture while producing more food for the 10 billion people of tomorrow.”
Archipley’s wife, Karen – while she shares his idealism – is more likely, when talking about the VSAT program, to tell individual stories of the friends she’s made and grown to admire: Thomas and Mirka Marlowe, the husband-and-wife veteran proprietors of Green Bee Farms in North Carolina. Mike Hanes, the homeless-veteran-turned-entrepreneur whose DANG!!! hot sauce is the flagship product for his company, Forager Mike’s SuperFoods. The staff sergeant who became the largest dragon fruit grower in the United States. The Marine who now makes Kaught Up Ketchup from organic heirloom tomatoes and sells it at Whole Foods Market®. And many, many more.
“These are incredible people,” she said. “We think there’s room for everybody, and we want to see as many veteran-owned farms as we can.”
This story was first published in The Year in Veterans Affairs & Military Medicine 2012-2013 Edition.