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Retreat Report

cliff — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:48:01 +0000

Watch a video of the retreat.

FVC’s Veterans Organic Farming Educational Retreat took place Memorial Day weekend. Sixteen aspiring farmers with military service backgrounds attended and all day Saturday and Sunday they were informed by experts in organic farming, training and certification. FVC provided accommodations, food and transportation to the venues, all around Santa Cruz, CA. Here are most of the attendees and FVC staff, posing amidst the organic berry bushes of Swanton Berry Farm. Jim Cochran, the founder, is in the center rear:

Photo by Susanna Frohman.

VA Funding Cut Hits Archi’s Acres

cliff — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:26:20 +0000

CNN broadcast a followup story today about our friends at Archi’s Acres near San Diego, reporting on the Veteran Administrations pulling the funding that had been supporting the veterans, who work and train in hydroponic gardening on the farm owned by Marine veteran Colin Archipley and his wife, Karen. We do hope that the VA replaces that source of funding for this very worthy operation.

Upcoming Organic Farming Retreat in Santa Cruz, CA

cliff — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:15:10 +0000

FVC will be having a three day Organic Farming Veteran Educational Retreat in and around Santa Cruz, California over Memorial Day Weekend. We have housing near the beach and will do tours of TLC Ranch (range-fed chickens, lamb and pigs), Jacobs Farm (organic herbs), Swanton Berry Farm (strawberries) and one vegetable operation. There will be lectures given by some of the real pioneers in organic farming – a great learning opportunity for veterans interested in farming.

Contact our office for more information.

1 (530) 756-1395

FVC Represents at School Garden Project in LA

cliff — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:50:27 +0000

Here’s a message we got this evening from Michael O’Gorman, FVC’s Project Director:

All,

Here are a few pictures of today’s amazing event in Inglewood, California. I and three young vets helped put in a school garden in a poor part of Los Angeles as the first of 1000 schools that Kelly Meyer, wife of Universal Studios President, Ron Meyer, is spearheading. Yesterday my son, Greg, my daughter-in-law Rachael, my grand-kids and two other vets spent a long day filling the beds with soil. One of the vets, John McLaughilin, 27 year-old Army Vet and Purple Heart grew up on a 1200 acre farm outside of Merced. Jose Soto went to Iraq at the age of 17, saw some of the worst battles and lost a lot of friends.

Today we planted the gardens with 700 kids. In the afternoon there was a star-studded assembly.

The first picture is Jose, me and Tobey Maguire, who talked about being a vegan.

The second picture is Kelly introducing me to speak.

The third is John, Gabby Reece (beach volley ball star), me, Derek Fisher from the LA Lakers, Peggy from Growing Great (a project that supports school gardens) and Tobey.

The last one is my son planting with a group of kids.

It was a great day, to put it mildly.

The school is 60% Hispanic, 38% African American and 2% other. I asked the kids how many had family or friends that went to Iraq or Afghanistan and somewhere between one third and one half raised their hands.

After the assembly one teacher brought up an eight year old Hispanic boy that was fighting back his tears. She said he was sad because his Dad was getting sent to Iraq. She asked him if he wanted to meet any of the celebrities. He said no, he wanted to meet my son. Greg knelt down in front of him and held his hands. “Your Dad will have lots of friends that will look after him for you”, he said. “Make sure you write him and send him lots of pictures.” An emotional scene for me at the end of a long two days.

(Click image to enlarge)

Addenda:

Access Hollywood covered the event (because there were celebrities involved, obviously) but gave it good publicity. And participant Gabby Reece described the event in her blog.

Our First Career Fair – a Slide Show

cliff — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:18:29 +0000

Professional photographer Susanna Frohman took some wonderful photos and portraits of veterans at the Fair. If you were there, I’m sure you noticed her.

It was a lively event where many good connections were made – between veterans and employers, veterans and agriculture advocates, FVC and farming veterans. The portraits show only a part of the 140+ veterans who attended.

Settle in, click the PLAY arrow and enjoy. Music by Tony Dee

A Web Resource for New Farmers

cliff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:22:09 +0000

The creators of the Beginning Farmers site describe it as “an effort to develop a comprehensive and up to date compilation of information resources for new, experienced, and potential farmers, as well as educators, activists, and policy makers interested in the development of new farm enterprises.”

With “special emphasis on resources for small farms, organic farming, direct marketing, and building local food systems.” The site is an effort by Taylor Reid and Jim Bingen of the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies at Michigan State University. (emphasis mine)

The site has many pages including Finding Land, Jobs and Internships, Training Programs and Business Planning. It also offers a Farmers Discussion Forum.

Worth checking out whether you’re a new farmer or an experienced one trying to keep up with the latest research.

FVC Event to Connect Veterans and Career Opportunities

cliff — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:28:46 +0000

FOOD & FARMING

VETERANS CAREER FAIR

March 5, 2010 * 9 AM – 4 PM

Veterans Memorial Building

1351 Maple Avenue, Santa Rosa

Event Coordinator: Linda Speel - linda (at) farmvetco.org

FOR DETAILS, CLICK HERE

FVC Takes Vets on Educational Retreat

cliff — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:05:46 +0000

n August, the Farmer-Veteran Coalition sponsored a “field trip” to a large organic vegetable farming operation in Baja, Mexico.

Vets visit an Ensenada, Mexico, tomato growhouse

Watch a slide show of the vets at school and play on the Baja coast.

Sustainable agriculture and why it matters

cliff — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:36:41 +0000

Part of the reason our current food production process is in trouble is that, in the interest of corporate profit we’ve stopped paying attention to what’s good for the land that grows that food. Our practices of planting every available acre, using precious irrigation water as if there was a bottomless supply, fertilizing with petro-chemicals and allowing our topsoil to erode have been the non-sustainable. Eventually, the required resources are depleted and the land stops producing.

Our emphasis at FVC is on promoting sustainable farming practices. Most veterans returning from war and the military, we believe, are looking for something to do that has lasting meaning – that is sustainable and live-giving.

So we’re grateful to have agencies like the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, that provide beginning farmers and experienced agricultural producers with guidelines, lessons, tips and best practices for planning and managing sustainable farming operations.

Known as ATTRA (it’s original name was Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas), the Information Service is “managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and is funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service. It provides information and other technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, Extension agents, educators, and others involved in sustainable agriculture in the United States.”

Bring on the New Farmer Incubators

cliff — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:53:21 +0000

We’ve blogged here on several occasions about the emergence of training programs for new farmers. Here, for example, in Lehigh County, PA. And here, in New England. Now there’s a program starting up in Wisconsin, at Stoney Acres Farm in Athens. WSAW reports on the program in a video here on their website.

“We teach them certain skills but we also teach them sort of record-keeping and financial planning and how to plan a farm and show them our spreadsheets and they’re part of the operation, which is a little bit different,” said Catrina Becker of Stoney Acres Farms.

Becker says her and her husband believe training new farmers is important for the future of agriculture.

She feels as people learn more about where their food comes from, that knowledge has the power to transform food systems and allow small farmers to stay in business.