Turning Soldiers Into Farmers

Coalition, USDA Increase Help for Veterans to Succeed in Agriculture

Chris Clayton
By  Chris Clayton , DTN Ag Policy Editor
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From soldier to farmer, Tyler Albers, of Waverly, Iowa, got his start in agriculture by renting acres from his uncle and focusing on the locally grown food market, including milling his own wheat. (Progressive Farmer file photo by Mark Tade)

DES MOINES (DTN) -- After years of work by local groups to help military veterans become farmers, such efforts are demanding more coordinated support from federal agencies.

The Farmer Veteran Coalition held its first national stakeholder conference last Friday and Saturday at Drake University in Des Moines to discuss both the avenues and roadblocks to helping veterans get involved in agriculture.

Michael O'Gorman, a retired farm manager from California, is executive director of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, which was founded in 2006. O'Gorman said the coalition was designed to be a first option for veterans trying to connect with farmers or local groups that can help potential farmers. Yet, a 2006 study showed rural America makes up a disproportionate percentage of military members deployed overseas.

"It's a gap I saw when I was looking at retiring after 40 years in large-scale fruit and vegetable production," O'Gorman said.

O'Gorman called the stakeholders' conference a milestone for the coalition. He noted that when the coalition began, there were more than 40,000 veteran organizations across the country but there was little help getting veterans into agriculture. There were at least 60 such groups at the meeting last week.

"Most of the groups out there, we helped them get started or introduced them to others," O'Gorman said.

Charles Kruse was not only president of the Missouri Farm Bureau for 18 years, but he also rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Missouri National Guard after enlisting as a private in 1966. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, asked Kruse to represent Farm Bureau on the Farmer Veteran Coalition board. Kruse said he also felt this was a cause that he wanted to be involved in.

"I've never seen a time in my 38 years of farming when agribusiness is crying for good people" like today, Kruse said.

Veterans may want to consider looking for jobs in other areas of agribusiness if they can't find farm work, Kruse said. He suggested looking for jobs at local cooperatives, for instance. Former soldiers possess a lot of traits anyone would want in an employee, including work ethic, perseverance, integrity and eagerness to learn, he said.

"These people coming off active duty have a lot to offer and agriculture has a great need for people who possess these qualities," Kruse said.

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Krysta Harden, USDA's deputy secretary, spoke to the stakeholder conference on Friday. She noted that getting veterans to consider an agricultural career has been a repeated effort for USDA throughout its history. Harden showed some USDA promotional material from 1944 encouraging World War II veterans to consider careers in agriculture.

"We know we owe you more than we can give back," Harden said. "We want to collectively in the U.S. government to do what we can -- join our forces, use our resources, make sure we are not duplicating but filling in the gap -- to help you, especially those of you who are interested in coming back to agriculture."

GAINING KNOWLEDGE

O'Gorman's career concentrated on managing large organic fruit and vegetable farms in California and Mexico. He noted, however, that the coalition isn't interested in promoting any particular kind of farm. He wants to stress that young people getting into agriculture need to consider an array of options for growing food and also understand the challenges of running a business.

"It's an incredible number of hurdles. The biggest problem I see with that equation is that it doesn't leave them the time they need to learn how to farm."

O'Gorman encouraged veterans to take a job on a farm and find a mentor or trainer. He also suggested they take the time to look at technical schools, colleges or other training programs for farmers.

"Get somebody to help you because my fear is that 20 years from now this wave of beginning farmers is not going to be farming or they are going to be marginalized around the edges of it."

FEDERAL HELP

Besides USDA, the conference included representatives from the Departments of Veteran Affairs and Labor, as well as the Small Business Administration. Staff for some of the veteran groups complained at the event about the lack of coordination among federal programs or different requirements for various federal programs. Harden noted the federal government can be big, cumbersome and difficult to navigate, but agencies are trying to join forces to better help veterans.

Harden said USDA has been working to simplify its website to consolidate some key programs for veterans in the same place. USDA is trying to focus more attention on developing the next crop of farmers, partially because the average age of farmers keeps creeping upward.

Harden also plugged some of the preferences and flexibility for veterans in the new and beginning farmer programs in the 2014 farm bill. Some of the applications for USDA loan programs were also streamlined in the bill.

"The farm bill enhanced our focus on veterans," she said.

Still, Harden noted that farming "is a tough business" and thus veterans looking for loans need to have a business plan.

As the event rolled out Friday, Harden also announced Karis Gutter, a Marine Corps Reserve veteran and current USDA deputy undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, also will take on the role of military veterans liaison at USDA.

What's the first step for veterans or farmers looking to connect with veterans? Here are a couple of links:

The Farmer Veteran Coalition: http://www.farmvetco.org

USDA's link for veterans: http://www.fns.usda.gov/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

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Chris Clayton