FVC’s target number for veterans attending the career fair was modest – we were hoping for at least 50.

In fact, 136 registered in advance or at the door to seek new jobs or career direction. They represented military generations going back to WWII, with many Viet Nam veterans as well as younger vets with service in the past decade.

We introduced this video at the career fair.

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

Pollan is author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, a New York Times bestseller. His previous books include The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001); A Place of My Own (1997); and Second Nature (1991). He’s also a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine.

In this talk from last April, presented in San Francisco as part of the Long Now Seminars speaker series, he presents the premise, as described on the Fora TV site, that “Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past. Michael Pollan’s talk promoted the premise — and hope — that farming can become an occupation and force of the future. In the past century American farmers were given the assignment to produce lots of calories cheaply, and they did. They became the most productive humans on earth. A single farmer in Iowa could feed 150 of his neighbors. That is a true modern miracle.”

This is about making agriculture sustainable.

This video takes one hour and twenty-six minutes (1:26) to watch, but you can choose to watch only short segments, as provided if you click the Full Program link.

Here’s another press account of the great work that Colin and Karen Archipley are doing down in Valley Center, CA. It’s great that they’re getting so much attention because they are a fantastic model for the mission of FVC.

Here are some quotes from the story in the North County Times.

The recycling process Archipley uses to grow bio-hydroponic organic basil may be part of thefuture of farming, especially in Southern California, where water is in increasingly short supply.

But for the men working with Archipley last week, their future is much more personal. The workers are part of a unique program coordinated by the Department of Veterans Affairs t

o offer a second chance, as well as a peaceful environment, to vets.

* * * * *

Archipley, 28, said he never imagined his small farm could help fellow veterans when he started the project in 2006 after returning from three tours in Iraq. Then again, while growing up in Northern California, he never thought he would be farmer.

“I didn’t have any background,” he said about farming. “My wife had an itch to move to Italy a couple of years ago, and I didn’t want to move out of the United States. But a friend said if you like Italy, you should check this place out.”

The rolling, open hills surrounding his farm looked enough like Tuscany for the couple, and Archipley and his wife, Karen, moved onto the property and began selling their avocados and basil at local farmer’s markets.

* * * * *

Archipley said he would like to see the program duplicated around the world, and he sees it having great potential for veterans returning from urban wars.

“Take an Iraq vet or an Afghanistan vet, where every roof was a potential danger,” he said. “What do you do? Come back and work in an urban environment? You can’t just put them in Wal-Mart and expect them to greet customers.”

The first six veterans through the program have been older than the typical Afghanistan and Iraq vets, but the program already has its own success stories. One of the first two men in the program was a homeless Desert Storm veteran, who now is employed by Archipley and living in a mobile home on the farm.

Nadia McCaffery honored her son, who was killed in action, by founding Veterans Village – a second, healing home for veterans returning from the wars. To that end, she has been seeking out land and facilities for these homes. One great potential village has been offered near St. Cloud, Minnesota – the Sauk Center.

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.”

Founded 25 years ago to bring vocational training to people, including veterans, in the San Francisco Bay area, Inter-City Services has been ramping up its veteran training programs over the past couple of years. Speaking to a reporter from the Oakland Tribune, Executive Director Mansour Id-Deen revealed that the agency received, last December, $650,000 to train 144 people over the next two years. It has previously been given $500,000 to train 125 veterans.

At its location on 3269 Adeline St., Inter-City Services offers career counseling, office and computer training, computer repair, and GED preparation. If the applicant requires a different area of vocational training, he or she will be referred to another training institution with all fees paid.

All honorably discharged veterans, including those with disabilities, can find a home at Inter-City Services.

Inter-City Services has been receiving state funding for veteran training most years since 1998.

The most recent grant specified that 50 percent of the recipients should be recently separated veterans, that is, those coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq — soldiers like Stercks and Cooper.

“I don’t think we’ll have any trouble at all filling the 144 spots,” Id-Deen said.

On the other hand, Id-Deen observed that, just like Stercks and Cooper, it sometimes takes a while before veterans find the agency. Inter-City Services says its goal is to provide a seamless service from military to civilian employment.

Shepherd Bliss is a strong supporter of FVC and its mission. In fact, his work has been one of the major inspirations for what we intend to do. He spoke last fall at our benefit in Sebastopol, CA and in this essay published by Sonoma West, he expands on the main topic of his speech.

Agrotherapy: Farms Can Heal

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:37 PM PST

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” my Uncle Dale used to say when I worked on his Iowa farm as a child. In recent years I have tried to eat something each day that I have grown, or something that a neighbor or someone local has grown.

Such seasonal eating — which we can fortunately do here in West County — can be physically and mentally nourishing. For example, around here from December through February wild miner’s lettuce is abundant, March through November chickens lay eggs. June to August is berry season, and September to November apples abound.

While farming since the early 1990s South of Sebastopol (which some refer to affectionately as Sebysouth  or Sebtati) and sometimes teaching psychology at Sonoma State University and elsewhere, I have come to see that the healing powers of apples, chickens, berries, wildcrafting, and farming itself can be mental, as well as physical. So I have started thinking and writing about what might be called agropsychology and agrotherapy. Farms can heal body, mind, and soul.

Animals, plants, and the elements can be therapists that engage in many healing functions. They can be connective and help break isolation. Pets and farm animals can be funny and help draw someone out of depression. Pruning can rid one of more than unwanted branches, as one’s “stuff” can also be cut. A bright sun can lift one’s spirit and a gentle stream can soothe the soul. Nature heals naturally.

Pet therapy and horticulture therapy are becoming increasingly popular in hospitals, recovery centers, and in work with military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress, the disabled, and those with Alzheimer’s Disease. Europe even has many agricultural operations they call agrotherapy farms.

As I’ve begun to write and talk about agrotherapy people have described their personal healing processes and how gardening and farming help them. “I farm because it is my work, play, church, school, gym, and therapy,” my agrarian Sebysouth neighbor Jeff Snook recently said as we exchanged food and plants. Farms tend to create relationships — with plants, animals, the elements, and humans — which can promote physical and mental well-being.

Such neighborly relationships will be especially important, even for survival, as we head into an economically uncertain future. Supermarket shelves are not likely to be as full in the future as they currently are, nor will gas stations have as much available cheap fuel. Growing at least part of one’s own food can reduce the stress of worrying about where future meals are going to come from.

“I can vouch for what you call ‘agropsychology.’ It saved me in my recovery from a traumatic childhood and now in middle age. I am once again finding great healing, joy, and contentment in growing my own garden and raising my own farm animals for food, fun and deep connection with the cycles of life and death. It is a spiritual, as well as a practical avocation. My husband says he can tell how happy I am by how much dirt is under my fingernails,” wrote Jennifer York, owner of the Bamboo Sorcery:

“The micro-elements of soil are positively impactful in managing depression. I don’t think we can say the same thing for ‘sterilized’ soil,”writes clinical psychologist Dr. Mary McMahon from Massachusetts.

So if something ails you, paying a  professional therapist can be helpful. And you can turn to nature, get down on all fours, get your hands dirty, plant something and then eat it. Farm animals and pets can delight with their beauty and goofiness. When the wind takes a redwood for a spin on the dance floor, it can be a marvelous, uplifting sight.

Shepherd Bliss farms in Sebastopol, teaches psychology part-time at SSU, and has essays on agrotherapy in the book “Enduring War” and the pending “Ecotherapy,” scheduled for publication in May. He can be reached at sb3@pon.net

Swords to Plowshares announced this week its plans to open an Oakland-based facility that “will include one-on-one employment counseling, interview coaching and assistance with job search and costs.” See the local ABC-TV video story here.

A San Francisco-based group has announced plans to open an employment and training office for Bay Area veterans. “We are opening this new satellite office in Oakland to make it easier for veterans to access veteran-specific employment and training services in their community,” explained Amy N. Fairweather, director of the Iraq Veteran Project for the “Swords to Plowshares” veteran support organization.

“We see a growing number of veterans in the East Bay, and we want to make employment and training services as convenient and accessible as possible,” she said.

The services offered at the Oakland office will include one-on-one employment counseling, interview coaching and assistance with job search and costs. The new office also will reach out to employers in the community and secure interviews for clients.

“We also hope to have our other service departments visit that office periodically to provide help with GI Bill and [Veterans Affairs Department] benefits,” Fairweather said.

Swords to Plowshares helps veterans with health and social services, transitional and permanent housing, employment and training and through its Iraq Veteran Project.

“We launched the Iraq Veteran Project in 2005 to better meet the needs of a new and unique population of post-9/11 veterans,” Fairweather said. The Iraq Veteran Project staff provides resources and referrals to veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and their families, including help with navigating educational benefits, accessing VA care and finding veterans services where they live, she added.

Michael Ergo, a former Marine sergeant, recently used the group’s employment training program to complete a paralegal certificate course at San Francisco State University.

“When I went in to see them, I asked if they had any legal training programs to put me in,” Ergo said. “They found the paralegal program within an hour. I was enrolled within a week. Swords to Plowshares definitely care about their clients. I got the impression that they were eager to help me and did not consider it a burden to serve me.”

A handful of Vietnam veterans established Swords to Plowshares in 1974. Today, a staff of 85 helps veterans with transitional and supportive housing, mental health care, employment and training, legal services and case management.

In additional to its local services, Swords to Plowshares now provides legal representation for VA claims and discharge review services to post-9/11 veterans regardless of where they live. The group also has developed military and veteran cultural competency training for clinicians and first responders to give them a basic understanding of resources and issues.

“Of course, we continue to provide our local services to veterans of all eras, but hope that by intervening as soon as possible, we will prevent this new generation of combat veterans from some of the suffering their chronically homeless predecessors continue to endure,” Fairweather said.

The Point Reyes Light, a small newspaper published in the rural town of Point Reyes Station near the coast of Northern California, interviewed an Iraq War veteran, Jason Yarbrough, this week, along with FVC’s Michael O’Gorman and pioneering organic farmer Warren Weber about the transition from warfare to farming.

Jason had loaded and launched fighter-bombers in the Persion Gulf during his 4-year stint in the service. He came home with post traumatic stress.

“The experience was hard to digest,” he said on Sunday afternoon at Star Route Farms in Bolinas. “There is a choking feeling that eventually catches up with you.”

The feeling caught up with him in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder, and after several years of trying to cope with disabling fear and anxiety, Yarbrough ended up at a homeless facility for veterans on Treasure Island.

That was where he connected with FVC, which led him to complete an internship at Crescent Moon Farms in Santa Rosa, California. As Warren Weber was quoted:

“Soldiers may be particularly suited to farming; the discipline they learn in the military may serve them well in farming.”

Shepherd was the first speaker at the benefit dinner in Sebastopol. Drawing from his experience as a military veteran, small farmer, poet and psychologist, he talked about the “broken systems” of our country’s veterans affairs and farming industry. Having been working with veterans for many years, he understands the healing potential that comes with working with living plants in the fields. He knows the power that farming holds in the transition from warfare to civilian life.