Before the Homegrown By Heroes label was established by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture in January 2013, there wasn’t an industry recognized way for farmer veterans to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. A few short years later, with a rapidly growing farmer veteran community spanning all 50 states plus Puerto Rico, Farmer Veteran Coalition is excited to announce the Homegrown By Heroes label has surpassed 1,000 certified-producers.
Marine veteran Daniel Wavle became the 1,000th Homegrown By Heroes member on June 8 when he certified his operation, Shoshana Shalom Farms in Hondo, Texas, with the label. Wavle, who served more than 14 years in the Marines which included two deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, currently raises goats and chickens and is in the process of building an aquaponics greenhouse for vegetable and tilapia production.
Wavle was also awarded a 2017 Farmer Veteran Fellowship thanks to generous support from the Bob Woodruff Foundation which he will use to purchase irrigation equipment that will allow him to move large volumes of water up a significant rise in elevation on his property. He expects the irrigation equipment will supply his farm’s water needs for the next ten years.
“Getting Homegrown By Heroes certified is going to make a huge difference at the farmers’ markets we attend,” said Daniel, who grew up working on his uncle’s dairy farm in South Carolina. “We’re out in Texas and military service is a big thing.”
Available to farmers, ranchers, fishermen and value-added producers of all branches and eras of military service, the Homegrown By Heroes label is an agricultural food label that informs consumers a product was produced by a veteran.
Farmer Veteran Coalition assumed stewardship of the label on Veterans Day, 2013 and began administering the label nationally. In the past year, the Homegrown By Heroes label has seen exponential growth. Since May of 2016, the number of certified producers has more than doubled.
“It takes a big effort to get a new label recognized in the marketplace,” said FVC Director Michael O’Gorman. “Now that we have 1,000 producers with more than $50 million in aggregate annual sales, we hope to see even faster growth.”
In addition to certifying the 1,000th HBH member, the state Departments of Agriculture in Virginia, Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico and Alaska have all signed up to promote the label in their states. Of the 20 states that now partner with FVC to promote HBH, 14 have developed merged labels which combines artwork from the state’s own ‘Buy Local’ logo with the Homegrown By Heroes logo.
Virginia which will host an announcement event July 24 at Virginia State University’s Randolph Farm to unveil the new merged logo and launch the Farmer Veteran Coalition of Virginia state chapter. To attend the event, please RSVP by visiting https://farmvetco.org/vahbh/
For more information about the Homegrown By Heroes, please visit www.farmvetco.org/homegrown-by-heroes.
