Adam talked about farming in a way that only a farmer could – what the dirt smelled like, what the birds sounded like, how he liked the way the humidity felt, and how his mind got to relax when he sat on a tractor.

A farmer’s season starts long before the first seed is planted and Adam knew that. Standing outside his trailer, steadying his balance with his cane, he had already begun farming. Five thousand miles away and without a dime, Adam had been planning and constructing every detail of his farm – his plants, the soil mix, the containers, the irrigation system, how the berries would be grown and harvested and sold.

Adam’s body had taken a beating in Iraq but his spirit was strong and he knew he had something that he could focus on and that the hard physical and mental work he needed to farm was going to heal him.

The Farmer-Veteran Coalition was honored to help buy Adam his first plants, pots and potting mix. Our friend Deborah Beebe popped up with the name “Red, White and Blueberry.” As Adam wrote this morning, “The soil is fertile in Florida; FVC planted a seed and now is watching it rapidly grow.” We urge all the public support for Adam’s farm possible.

– Michael O’Gorman, FVC Founder and Project Director

*********** PRESS RELEASE ***********

Farming Project Invites Veterans to Work and Learn

Jacksonville, FL April 23, 2010

Former Army Sergeant Adam Burke, founder and director of Veterans Farm, wants to provide paying work and horticulture therapy for fellow disabled veterans. Last year, Adam and his wife Michele began raising and marketing “Red, White and Blueberries” in central Florida with support from the Farmer Veteran Coalition (www.farmvetco.org), which specializes in helping veterans find livelihoods in the food and farming sector.

This year money raised by Work Vessels for Veterans (www.workvesselsforveterans.org) has enabled Adam to secure 8 acres of land outside of Jacksonville where he plans to expand Veterans Farm to include other berries and organic vegetables while providing more job opportunities for disabled veterans. WVFV serves as Veterans Farm’s non-profit fiscal sponsor.

“Horticulture therapy by way of the blueberry farm helped my recovery so much that I thought it would only be greedy not to share it with others who have suffered so much,” Adam said. “It was nice to have other disabled veterans out there. We stick together and work as a team.”

Adam grew up on a family farm in Central Florida. The first member of his family to not go directly into farming, he joined the US Army instead, serving from 1995-2004. He served in Iraq with Operation Iraqi Freedom from December 2002 until March of 2004, when mortar fire near Balad gave him his second and most serious injury, earning him the Purple Heart.

Adam relates, “When I returned home I found it difficult going through the VA to get help for my TBI and PTSD. The psychologist and psychiatrist kept telling me that I needed to find a way to relieve stress. One of the best things I remember from my childhood was growing up on a farm. I remembered being in the outdoors and enjoying working with others. I remember the sound of the birds and the mist from the sprinklers, the wind and the calming effect it had on me.”

Adam says that his next step in developing Veterans Farm on its new land is to raise money to purchase the blueberry bushes and pine bark so that he can accept his first group of disabled veterans to train and operate the farm. He is also seeking donations of equipment to help complete the project. He plans to make his farm fully self-sustaining.

Adam Burke can be contacted via his website (www.veteransfarm.com) or email (veteransfarm@yahoo.com) or telephone (352-217-1662).

All donations for Veterans Farm through WVFV are tax deductible will go directly to helping disabled veterans and their recovery.

Release by the Farmer-Veteran Coalition Media Project, funded by Lewis Black

The event was open for free admission, with good food and drink to enjoy while the speakers spoke and during the social times before and after. Here are some photos from the event:

A down-home venue in a beautiful location, Pt. Reyes Station.

Helge Hellburg, of the main sponsor Marin Organic, welcomes the audience.

Michael O'Gorman, Project Director of FVC, tells its history.

Wendy Johnson, Master Gardener of the Green Gulch Zen Center, prepares to pass around the bell to honor all veterans.

Amy Fairweather, Director of Swords to Plowshares and the Iraq Veteran Project expresses her appreciation of FVC's mission..

Mary Tillman, Gold Star Mother and author speaks in support of FVC.

Veteran and small scale vegetable farmer Matt McCue describes the unforgiving discipline of growing winter squash.

Jeremy Lopez expresses his gratitude to his vineyard mentor Joe Judge.

Wendy Johnson closes the meeting with a story about a pomegranate and its inspirational meaning to a soldier in combat.

An article in the Sauk Herald describes the latest developments in this project.

Veterans project heads in new direction
New leaders focus in on Washington

By Bryan Zollman

The proposed veterans village at Oak Ridge north of Sauk Centre has a new name, new leaders and a new direction.

The project is said to be gaining steam toward Washington, as new leaders have emerged and hope to secure federal funding to not only purchase the $3.6 million property, but make significant improvements to its existing structures.

One of those leaders is Jimmie Coulthard, who was in Sauk Centre March 24, speaking to the local Rotary Club about the proposal.

Coulthard, 64, a Vietnam veteran who has made a name for himself by securing government dollars for veteran housing for the past two decades, is optimistic about turning the Oak Ridge property into “Valley Forge Village,” a 400-unit retreat for veterans and their families where they may stay as long as they wish in a self-sustaining common interest community that offers training and reintegration strategies.

“We could pull it off very quickly,” Coulthard said in a phone interview from his home in River Falls, Wis. “It’s more than shovel ready.”

Coulthard said the facility would be intended as a non-medical facility where veterans can go voluntarily.

“We’re trying to stay away from it being institutional,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a place you are discharged to.”

Coulthard said Sauk Centre is an ideal location because of the vicinity of VA centers in Alexandria and St. Cloud as well as schools such as Alexandria Technical College, which veterans could attend to learn new trades or professions. He said the remodel and construction phase could produce 60 jobs, but he envisions as many as 200 if the project came to fruition.

Funding

While the personnel has changed, one obstacle has remained. Where will the money come from?

“I don’t know where it is going to come from,” Coulthard said. “But for me there is nothing as strong as an idea whose time has come.”

Coulthard has twice visited Washington with colleagues associated with the project. He said he has met with several politicians and is trying to get federal agencies such as Health and Human Services, HUD, the Veterans Administration and the Department of Agriculture (organic farming would be a staple of the village) to work together.

“I’m trying to get them to take a look at this on a national level,” he said. “To me, that is where it makes most sense.”

Coulthard said it’s difficult to put a price tag on the project because the campus is so large.

“It’s such a wild guess,” he said. “I personally think $35 to $40 million would give us a top-of-the-line place.”

Who is Coulthard?

Jimmie Coulthard spent six years in the Army in the 1960s and spent 20 months in Vietnam.

“When I came home in 1968, this country was crazier than a tick,” he said.

He worked on riverboats for awhile before becoming a chemical dependency counselor.

“In 1984 my life fell apart so I went to the VA to get help and changed careers,” he said.

He eventually landed a job at the Hazelden Foundation, a nationally recognized treatment center in the Twin Cities. In 1992 he started a homeless veterans program that eventually led to several housing projects for veterans throughout the state, including Minneapolis and St. Cloud.

He hopes the Oak Ridge project will be his latest success story in helping veterans. He, along with Oak Ridge property owner Jim Jauss, and Nadia McCaffrey, the mother of Patrick McCaffrey, who was killed in the Iraq War, are slated for a visit to Washington April 19-21. He hopes to know more about the future of the project in the next couple months.

“People would love to see it saved, used, run responsibly and create some work,” he said. “With veterans you always feel served. They’re still out there serving. This is a worthwhile project to try and pull off. The stars are aligned for that place. It’s just ready.”

March 3, 2009, Davis, California

The Farmer Veteran Coalition is happy to announce that it is now a project of Community Partners. Community Partners accelerates ideas into action to advance the public good. The organization acts as a catalyst for community change, civic action and readiness by offering critical support, guidance and training to a range of nonprofit organizations, initiatives, foundations, government agencies and social entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for building communities. Community Partners work to recognize, invest in and celebrate the critical role individuals and groups play in achieving a just, vibrant civil society. We at the Farmer Veteran Coalition are proud to be a part of this dynamic organization. For more information on Community Partners visit www.communitypartners.org

The mission of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition (FVC) is to mobilize our food and farming community to create healthy and viable futures for America’s veterans by enlisting their help in building our green economy, rebuilding our rural communities, and securing a safe and healthy food supply for all. We seek to connect military veterans, specifically those of the post 9-11 era, with educational, vocational and entrepreneurial opportunities in the farming and food communities.  A politically neutral project of Community Partners, FVC accepts tax-deductible donations of all sizes. We will be opening our national headquarters this week in Davis, California. From this location, and with the fiscal sponsorship of CP, we expect to gain stronger support in the farming and food industries to rapidly expand our work beyond the young men and women we have already engaged.

]]> http://www.farmvetco.org/2009/03/fvc-becomes-a-project-of-community-partners/feed/ 0 http://www.farmvetco.org/2009/01/veterans-turned-farmers-to-speak-at-event-tonight/ http://www.farmvetco.org/2009/01/veterans-turned-farmers-to-speak-at-event-tonight/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:08:55 +0000 cliff http://farmvetco.org/?p=131 [...]]]> Farmer-Veteran Coalition Kickoff Event at Foreign Cinema
To Benefit Growing Veterans’ Sustainable Agriculture Movement
Country Joe McDonald Will Entertain Veterans and Supporters,
Gold Star Guests of Honor Mary Tillman and Nadia McCaffrey

January 28, 2009, San Francisco, CA – The Farmer-Veteran Coalition (FVC) will hold its official kickoff event at Foreign Cinema tonight, as a tribute to veterans returning from combat and the growing movement in Sustainable Agriculture programs that supports their needs. Famed singer-songwriter and Navy veteran Country Joe McDonald will entertain veterans and their guests, with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres featuring organic range-fed meat provided by Gulf War veteran farmer Jim Dunlop. The critically-acclaimed Foreign Cinema Restaurant (see www.foreigncinema.com) is located at 2534 Mission Street, San Francisco and the event starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 28. Tickets are $100.00 each available from Linda Speel at 707-981-8010.

According to Michael O’Gorman, FVC CEO, “The Farmer-Veteran Coalition is a young and unique alliance between leaders in California’s sustainable agriculture and a growing number of men and women returning from the battlefronts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our mission is to find jobs in agriculture for returning war veterans and this event is about sharing real-life experiences of veterans who are benefiting from training in sustainable agriculture.” O’Gorman, who has farmed vegetables for nearly 40 years, added that, “Six months ago we were working with six veterans; now we are working with twenty, and another thirty have expressed interest in agriculture as a career once they leave active duty.”
Guests of Honor at the event are Gold Star Mothers Mary Tillman, whose son Pat Tillman, a star professional football player, died in Afghanistan, and Nadia McCaffrey, founder of the Patrick McCaffrey Foundation/ The Veterans Village, named after her son who died in Iraq. Other veterans assisted by FVC who will be at the event include:

• Marine Sergeant Colin Archipley served three tours in Iraq. He and his wife Karen used their own funds to start Archi’s Acres Veteering initiative, coordinated with San Diego’s VA Health Care’s CWT/ VI clinic, serves as a working busineserans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program http://archisacres.com/veterans.html. This pions model for similar projects where trainees work side-by-side with fellow veterans returning to the workforce. Coursework includes hydroponics and organic farming techniques to produce crops such as avocados and basil.
• Matt McCue, an Army combat vet in Iraq who spent last season farming with well-known gardener and restaurateur Dan Smith from the French Garden Restaurant in Sebastopol.  This year he is a starting a CSA of his own with his girl friend and fellow farmer Lily Schneider.
• Josh Anderson grew up farming in the Mid-West before entering the ?Army and then the Peace Corps.  With the help of the FVC he will be entering the prestigious Agro-Ecology program at the University of California Santa Cruz this summer, receiving full financial aid from San Francisco’s Swords to Plowshares veteran assistance programs.
• Jenn Fusaro is a young female Navy vet who wants to farm when she finishes her Master’s thesis at Humboldt State’s Community and Environmental Studies program. She is researching how the post 9-11 veterans can help solve America’s critical need for young farmers.
• Army vet Chris Whitaker, back from two tours in Iraq, runs Fresh Edibles CSA in Stockton, California with his father Bob. Chris is also attending college with the goal to become a doctor while still continuing to farm.

Other young participants in the program unable to attend the dinner include Purple Heart recipient Adam Burke from a small town near Sarasota Florida.  Adam, who was injured by a mortar attack in the Sunni Triangle, was the first member of his family to not go directly into farming.  “I was tired of picking vegetables my whole childhood,” he told us.  “Now I’d give anything to still be able to bend over like that.”  Adam wants to start a blueberry farm with high bush varieties planted in thirty-gallon containers.  “I want a farm where other vets can come and work,” he says.  “That way they can pick even if they lost their legs or have just one arm.”
Event Details
The critically-acclaimed Foreign Cinema Restaurant (see www.foreigncinema.com) is located at 2534 Mission Street, San Francisco and the event starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 28. Tickets are $100.00 each available from Linda Speel at 707-981-8010.
About The Farmer-Veteran Coalition
The mission of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition is to mobilize our food and farming community to create healthy and viable futures for America’s veterans by enlisting their help in building our green economy, rebuilding our rural communities, and securing a safe and healthy food supply for all. For more information visit www.farmvetco.org  or e-mail   info at (@) farmvetco.org or phone (707) 981-8010.
About Archi’s Acres Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) Program
Archi’s Acres Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) is a nonprofit program in San Diego, California that helps veterans returning from combat make a fresh start. This cooperative effort of Archi’s Acres organic farm and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Compensated Work Therapy/Veterans Industries (VA CWT/ VI) program is s targeted to veterans who may be interested in returning to the work force in the agricultural industry. VSAT’s Bio-Organic Growing course offers trainees a full range of learning experiences that include hands on training and text book learning. Course work includes produce production, from seeds to the end user, and sales channels from wholesalers and retailers to the farmer’s market. For more information visit http://archisacres.com/veterans.html email Linda Poniktera at ?linda@archisacres.com or call (760) 670-5489.

Join Special Guest

Singer, Songwriter and Navy Veteran

Country Joe McDonald

plus

San Francisco’s food community at a special evening to benefit the Farmer-Veteran Coalition.

Come meet young veterans and hear about their transitions into farming.

Where: Foreign Cinema Restaurant
2534 Mission St., SF, 94110

Food and drinks will be served.

“If you asked God to take you to food heaven and he listened – this is where you would end up. Seriously.”

“This is where Chez Panisse holds its annual holiday party. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for you.”

When: Wednesday, January 28
7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Donation is $100 per person and can be paid by check mailed to:

Farms Not Arms/FVC, Box 255, Petaluma, CA. 94953

(Please make checks out to “Farms Not Arms/FVC”)

Josh Anderson grew up farming in Arkansas and Missouri. He served five in the US Army and a year and a half teaching agriculture in the Peace Corps. He is now working with FVC, hopes to attend horticultural apprentice program at UC Santa Cruz this coming summer and then return to his family farm in Missouri.

Michael O’Gorman,
Project Director, Farmer-Veteran Coalition

Thanks to the Moms

Thanksgiving Day, 2008

By many definitions I am what is called a mama’s boy.
It’s true. And I thank my lucky stars every year for being able to have two fantastic moms!
For a son, above all other role models, mama’s should always be number one!

There are a multitude of reasons why I work with the Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) or enlisted in the Peace Corps and Military for that matter. It’s natural for sons to leave the nest to discover the world for ourselves and though each walkabout differs, it seems we are all similarly wandering with the instinctive drive to make our mothers proud.

If its not then it should be! Maybe it explains the irrationality for those who start our wars; do they no longer care what their mother would think?

I’m thirty years old and have had an enriched life traveling extensively around the world sharing many a home cooked meals with mama’s of all different shapes, shades, culinary skills, and opinions. Mothers are the backbone to any culture and maintain the balance in our communities. When mothers watch their children grow strong, healthy, and happy, a nation flourishes. But when mothers begin to lose their sons and daughters to war, hunger, or disaster then a broken mother’s heart can easily tear the cohesive fabric that binds our cultures and communities together.

Mothers are every sons personal Virgil here to guide us through life. Without mothers to steer us through the tempests, triumphs and failures our compasses are directionless without knowing the gift of unconditional love. It’s what makes us become whole.

But what happens to the guide who loses their voyager along the way?

How does a mother cope with losing what means the most to them?

Does the despair of losing a loved one ever wane?

I am childless. This pain is beyond my comprehension.

On November 15th the FVC hosted our second benefit dinner. This time it was at Swanton Berry Farm in Davenport, North of Santa Cruz. The event was filled with farmers, veterans, community members, and lastly Gold Star Mothers. During the event I spent most of the night learning of these challenges from mothers who are sustaining after losing a child in the wars of Iraq or Afghanistan. Each loss is shattering, but how each mother responded to their loss is truly inspirational and emboldens my determination to do my part to honor my fallen friends, and support other mothers’ sons and daughters returning home.

Listed below are brief glimpses into each mother’s journey.

From Desktop

Left to right: Karen Archipley, wife of Marine Sargeant Colin Archipley, who has served three tours of duty in Iraq and now farms Archi’s Acres with Karen in Escondido, California; Dolores Kesterson, Gold Star Mother of Eric Kesterson; Mary Tillman, Gold Star Mother of Corporal Pat Tillman; Donna Jacobs, Founder of Not This Time Vets and mother of an active duty soldier serving his second tour in Iraq. Not pictured is Nadia McCaffrey, Gold Star Mother of Sergeant Patrick Ryan McCaffrey and founder of Veterans Village. Picture by Sufyan Bunch.

After the death of her son, Mary Tillman – mother of famed athlete Pat Tillman – has spent every opportunity to uncover the truth surrounding her son’s death and has exposed the despicable behavior, and the blundering that the Bush Administration, military, and Pentagon employed to use his life and death for their propaganda advantage . Mary is a gracious woman whom I completely admire for her courage and undoubtedly inspiring many other mothers, wives, and family members to seek out the truth behind the many deaths of our nation’s fallen sons and daughters. Mary has recently released a book dedicated to her fallen son titled “Boots on the Ground by Dusk”. It is a powerful account of a mother’s journey dealing with the difficulty of losing a son, and celebrating a vibrant life.

Pat Tillman Foundation

Story on National Public Radio

Nadia McCaffrey, founder of the Veterans Village, also lost her son Patrick during a patrol in Iraq when the American trained and armed Iraqi security forces turned their weapons against him. Nadia, a native of Bordeaux, France, has used her energy in developing a national network of centers where returning veterans can decompress, heal, and find ways to live after war. Currently Nadia is working to open two new centers within the year one in New York and the other in Minnesota. The center in Minnesota is a former school campus that will be transformed into an off the grid community with the intent to use farmers from our organization to provide training and healthy food for its residents.

Dolores Kesterson came to our dinner on the third anniversary of losing her son Erik in Mosul, Iraq when two Blackhawk helicopters collided, killing many of the service members. Afterward Delores had an opportunity to meet President Bush individually while he was meeting victims’ families. From her accounts Bush knew she was not going to be a friendly picture frame opportunity so instead he came at her immediately arrogant, confrontational, and without remorse for her loss. I highly recommend googling Delores and researching her story.

Story on U.S. Tour of Duty site

Dolores on O’Reilly

Lastly, Donna Jacobs is a mother who has not lost her son in war but is preparing to say good bye once again as he deploys for this 3rd combat tour at the end of the month to Afghanistan. Donna has been a tidal force in the Santa Cruz area since becoming involved with veteran’s services. She has started an organization called Not This Time Vets and was instrumental in bringing Farms Not Arms together with Veterans groups and veterans advocates to help us form a politically neutral group called the Farmer-Veteran Coalition.

My military experience was confusing. First they taught me how to take a human life, but then as a medic working in VA hospitals they helped me realize I had a gift to compassionately help individuals medically with my hands and my heart. I’ve never seen war, and though I excelled in the military I eventually quit and never looked back. Sworn to a new mission my objective has been to learn how wage peace by living fully, traveling extensively, and loving wastefully.

I will always cherish my mother’s very clear lessons. Be kind, make friends, and if, “IF”, you have to fight you do it for the right reasons.

This is what I think all of my adopted mothers from around the world would want me to do.

Be in peace and eat good food.

Joshua Anderson
Spc. Medic, US Army, 1996-2001
Agricultural Volunteer, Peace Corps, Niger, 2006-2008

Swanton Berry
Farm invites you to a special benefit dinner

In support
of “Farms Not Arms”

&
“The Farmer Veteran Coalition Project”

Saturday November
15^th

Meet the Gold
Star Mothers, Veterans and Farmers

6PM at the
Swanton Berry Farm-Stand in Davenport CA

Join us for
special appetizers followed by Organic Spaghetti Pasta with Dry Farm
Tomato Marinara, Warm Bread with Local Goat Cheese Baked with Chadwick
Garden Garlic and Herbs, Peak of Season Salad, Judge Family Vineyard
Wine, Flowers and Herbs

from the Homeless
Garden Project

A fine meal
finishing with our own Strawberry Shortcake

& Coffee
from the Community Action Network

Tickets $75.00

Call to reserve
a space or for advance tickets call:

Layla 831-246-4897 laylaa@homelessgardenproject.org

or Forrest
831-469-8804 forrest@swantonberryfarm.com

or online at
www.farmsnotarms.org

Location- Hwy
1, Two miles North of Davenport, CA

Close to 100 people – including veteran-farmers representing age groups from 20s through 60s, Gold Star mothers of vets killed in action, active farmers, activists and just plain people who want to support young veterans looking for meaningful work – socialized, ate good food and listened to inspiring speakers at the French Garden restaurant in Sebastopol, California. All of the vegetables served for the five-course gourmet dinner were grown on the restaurant’s farm, which is managed by Matt Mccue, an Iraq War veteran.

[Image: Michael O'Gorman opens the event at the French Garden]

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat published a related story today about the cause of FVC, quoting Mccue and our visionary spokesperson, Michael O’Gorman.

The idea, said O’Gorman, is that farms can provide both employment and healing for war veterans. And it cuts both ways, he said, because American agriculture — with five times as many farmers over age 65 as under 35 — needs young blood.

New farmers are needed not only to invigorate the industry, but also to propel the “green farming” movement toward more wholesome, fresh, locally grown foods, O’Gorman said last week on a visit to French Garden Farm.

We’ll soon be posting and pointing to video footage of the speakers, including O’Gorman, veteran-farmer and poet Shepherd Bliss, Gold Star mother and Veterans’ Village founder Nadia McCaffrey, Mccue and former president of the National Family Farm Coalition, George Naylor.

Our goals were to inform and excite our audience and to raise funds toward securing a fiscal sponsorship, which will allow FVC to develop its working organization and solicit funding directly. We feel that we succeeded spectacularly on both counts. But there’s plenty left to do.