Anna Mann and her family live on an old tobacco farm in the foothills of Appalachia in North Carolina. Anna served in the Army for eight years and was deployed for two tours, one in Bosnia and one in Baghdad as a member of a Civil Affairs team. Anna has great pride in her military career, but continues to experience challenges because of her service.
Farming has brought Anna a sense of inner peace and has “healed [her] spirit and helped [her] reconnect with society”. Chestnut Ridge Farm is a 10-acre family farm that specializes in Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) pork and chicken eggs, as well as non-AWA turkey and chicken, which she sells at two local farmers markets. Anna integrates her poultry and hogs into her fruit and nut orchard as a way of amending her soil, utilizing available land and diversifying her product base. Anna also integrates herbs and pumpkins into sections of the orchard as weed control and to maximize her profit on her limited amount of land.
Anna was our first female 2012 Bob Woodruff Farming Fellow in the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund. This title honors and acknowledges her personal sacrifice to our country and that of other females who have been in combat.
