Farmer Veteran Coalition Offers New Purpose, Opportunities and Hope
Editor’s Note: At the Eco-Farm Conference last January, I was fortunate to meet over a dozen young men and women veterans from various branches of the military who inspired and impressed everyone with their honesty, humility and passionate desire to learn all they could about agriculture. They are part of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, (FVC) an organization founded in Davis, CA by Michael O’Gorman, whose mission is simple: mobilize veterans to feed America.
The Farmer-Veteran Coalition (http://www.farmvetco.org) is a scrappy little non-profit with a big vision, a tiny budget and a national outreach program making remarkable strides in a challenging economy. “Our intention is to cultivate a new generation of successful farmers and food leaders, which will support renewal of our rural communities, help build a more robust economy and provide our returning veterans with viable careers, a sense of purpose, as well as physical and psychological benefits,” Founder and Executive Director Michael O’Gorman explains. The FVC is assisting veterans across the country through training, mentoring, and direct aid such as helping to purchase equipment, supplies, even breeding stock, to get their operations launched.
To understand the impact of what the FVC is doing, consider this: The unemployment rate for recent veterans — those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan — was almost 12 percent for the first 10 months of 2010, higher than the national average, which is currently 9.6 percent.
Veterans can have a difficult time after returning from combat. The fallout from being unable to find work, combined with difficulties like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) or other disabilites, put veterans at risk for homelessness, which also affects veterans at a greater rate than civilians. Veterans are also experiencing a very high suicide rate, perhaps because they are overwhelmed by hopelessness, despair and a sense of worthlessness.
But O’Gorman and his team–which includes Navy veteran Tia Christopher, who directs the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund and former Marine Chris Ritthaler, National Veteran Outreach Coordinator,–see daily examples of courage, tenacity and achievement. They are helped by a group of generous advisors, who are successful farmers and food industry leaders with long histories in overcoming agricultural, managerial, financial, and marketing obstacles. It’s really inspiring to read the stories on the FVC website (http://www.farmvetco.org) that illustrate how veterans, some of them recovering from devastating injuries, are starting productive, meaningful new lives in agriculture.
“Our organization is leading this national effort to connect veterans with careers in agriculture because they can make such a critical contribution to the USDA’s campaign to find 100,000 new farmers,” O’Gorman says. “We believe that veterans possess the unique skills, discipline and strength of character needed to create safe, healthy, sustainable food system for all.”
South Coast Agriculture Innovators: 3
This is the third in a series about agricultural entrepreneurs on California’s San Mateo County coast. During the last 10 years, a new generation of farmers and ranchers have come to the Southcoast to live their dream of sustainable agriculture. They are passionate, knowlegeable, resourceful, scrappy and willing to make the sacrifices required (like living in a yurt) to make their dreams a reality. They work the land rain or shine and sell what they grow to local restaurants, at farmer’s markets, in farmstands, online and via CSAs (community supported agriculture).
Lightfoot Industries: Pioneering Social Enterprise
Carmen Kubas founded Lightfoot Industries www.lightfootind.com in Santa Cruz, CA to offer sustainable vocational training for teens. The purpose-driven hybrid concept combines a for-profit restaurant/retail line with a non-profit academy, providing marginalized teens with entrepreneurial training and innovative curriculum which models social, environmental, and fiscal responsibility. Meet the first crop of Lightfoot students this week at the Lightfoot Supper Club DIG Gardens 420 Water Street, Santa Cruz for details go to http://lightfoot.eventbrite.com
What is your vision for Lightfoot Industries?
We are building an entirely new educational framework that connects at-risk teens with strong teachers and mentors, giving young people critical guidance and marketable skills in a whole-person approach that results in fully engaged, responsible citizens. There are no other programs (for profit or non-profit) in the entire Northern California area that address the student as a whole system and integrate fully with high school curriculum. It is a four-year apprentice-based learning program designed around a culture of achievement, with real incentives, reachable goals and in-depth integration with the teachers, as well as the same graduation requirements faced by students in traditional high schools. One of the greatest human experiences is that moment in time when the light goes on for someone—when the innate fire is lit. We intend to make that happen.
What does your pilot program look like?
There are 12 students in the program, which began last October and ends in May and includes the following classes:
Social Media – Taught by Rich Harris, Seagate Social Media Manager
Wellness – Taught by Village Yoga of Santa Cruz (Bikram)
Product Development – Taught by Serendipity Saucy Spreads
I have been teaching the classes in Sustainable Professional Development which includes learning food preparation and serving for our Supper Club series.
One project we did this past Fall included a catering event for the Santa Cruz Waldorf School and a Reciprocal Learning series we carried out with their fifth graders in their biodynamic garden. Over the course of two days, our students harvested product for the catering event along side the 5th graders, procuring field greens, apples for a crisp and flowers for decorations. Then they helped with preparation and serving for 200 people—they were great!
What inspired the evolution of Lightfoot Industries?
“Bored, disinterested, unseen, confused, scared, and feeling out of place.” These are words that describe high school students today and contribute to the more than 35% drop-out rate in the US public schools system. High schools are becoming increasingly crowded, with reduced budgets resulting in social, economic and learning differences not being addressed. In my experience working with teens as a teacher, coach and mentor, I observe tremendous talent going to waste and the generational re-creation of at-risk behaviors such as substance abuse.
Does the name have special meaning?
Lightfoot Industries comes from my great grandfather and great aunt—they were orphaned Cherokees in the mid 1800s. My aunt, Daisy Lightfoot, was a very industrious pioneer woman. I am also inspired by the metaphor of a light foot (soft footprint) on the planet that is based on the actual definition of sustainability from the Great Law of the Iroquois, ‘In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation… even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.”
Why do we need sustainable vocational education?
People are diverse, so there can’t be just one method of education. We need to educate people in a relevant whole systems approach. Vocational education is often seen as less valuable and desirable than college prep. We need infrastructure, because skilled workers and artisans are critical to the health of our economy—they are just as important as doctors and lawyers. The social stigma of vocational education needs to be lifted. Providing all the tools to compete in the marketplace can level the playing field. All students regardless of whether college prep or not should learn the three principals of sustainability: social, environmental and fiscal responsibility.
What advice do you have for other social entrepreneurs?
Make sure to find a like-minded, professional cohort to discuss development issues with and for general support. The nature of a social enterprise, although working through the capitalist system, flies in the face of business as usual. Develop a network that understands PROFESSIONALLY the world of sustainable business –it will keep you sane and save time and money.
Secondly, stay fluid yet focused–you never know where opportunity will present itself.
What’s your definition of success?
Happiness.
South Coast Agriculture Innovators: 2
This is the second in a series about agricultural entrepreneurs on the California South Coast. The region north of Santa Cruz and south of San Francisco has a rich farming and ranching heritage and Pescadero is a flourishingi center of agricultural innovation and creativity. Full disclosure: For more than a decade, I’m fortunate to have lived and farmed here.
Flooded fields and marshland—a negative for some—became the source of a thriving business for the Willow Farm “We grow it, we make it in the USA!” This claim comes thanks to the ingenuity and determination of owners, Neil and Alix Curry. They came to Pescadero 20 years ago from Australia after having created a successful biodynamic blueberry farm there where they used willows as windbreaks. When the couple emigrated to Pescadero and found fertile land on the edge of the marsh, their goal was to build a profitable business without compromising ecologically sound farming practices; where conservation and productivity work in tandem as permaculture. The Currys are growing a number of varieties of willow which they transform into unique furniture and garden art featured recently at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Museum of Outdoor Arts in Colorado, and US Botanical Garden in Washington D.C.
They are also raising livestock including sheep, ducks, geese, horses, chickens and vegetables. Animals are set loose among the willows in winter to eat the weeds and in spring to strip the leaves from the stems, a job that would otherwise be done by employees who are far more valuable in the design and production use of the stripped canes. For the past 13 years, they’ve also been developing a flock of grassfed Dorper sheep and the lamb is now available for purchase through their website. Willow Farm eggs are sold at the Pescadero Country Store.
Good, fresh, local food is one of the reasons Duarte’s Restaurant has been a landmark, drawing eager diners (a whopping 13,000 a month) to the area since the doors first opened in 1894 when Frank Duarte brought a barrel of whiskey from Santa Cruz and started serving from the same bar that people sit at today. Now run by the fourth generation of Duartes (pronounced Doo-arts), the restaurant is best known for its distinctive cream of artichoke and cream of chili soups and cioppino, as well as fresh caught seafood and a wide choice of homemade pies. The atmosphere is rustic and unfussy–there is still counter service and several tables are long, family style where you can make new friends while enjoying a hearty meal. Named an American Classic by the James Beard Foundation, guests are really intrigued by the fact that most of the vegetables that find their way into delicious entrees (and signature drinks) are produced in the prolific garden out back. Take a peek at what’s growing before heading in the door for a meal and you’ll have an idea what’s on the menu that day.
Families have flocked to Phipps Ranch since it began as a country store and farmstand in 1978 run by Darcy, James and Joseph Phipps as a way to earn some money in the summer. Over 30 years later it’s a very popular ‘U-Pick” operation for pesticide-free strawberries, olallieberries, and boysenberries. In addition it has become a year-round source of more than 70 varieties of dried beans—many of them heirloom (Martha Stewart is a customer) and a barnyard where farm animals and all kinds of birds live. A wonderful place for a picnic, kids love crawling around on the antique farm equipment and getting up close with the animals. Visitors can also add produce or a new garden plant to their bounty of berry pie fixings!
South Coast Agriculture Innovators: 1
Nestled at the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains, bordered by the Pacific and less than an hour from the high tech hustle and invention of Silicon Valley, lies a little hub of agricultural innovation called the South Coast. Though long a flower-growing center and an area known for artichokes, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, peas and leeks, the South Coast is now becoming more diversified and an excellent place for children and adults to learn about what it takes to grow the food we eat. In the fields, barns, kitchens and farmsteads of this fertile region, farmers and ranchers with vision, ingenuity and tenacity have developed entrepreneurial enterprises which are helping showcase California’s agricultural abundance. Full disclosure: I’m fortunate to have lived and farmed on the South Coast for over a decade.
The majority of the aromatic basil and other culinary herbs, as well as many edible flowers in Whole Foods are grown at Jacobs Farm, founded in 1980 in Pescadero by two dedicated agricultural pioneers, Larry Jacobs and his wife Sandy Belin. One of the first US certified commercial organic herb operations, today Jacobs Farm is growing in fields across San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
Theirs is a model of triple bottom line success—people, planet and profit — producing on over 3700 certified organic acres. Sister company, Del Cabo, is a grower-owned cooperative of 400 families in Baja which Larry and Sandy started in 1985 and is growing very high quality cherry tomatoes and herbs year-round. Once an area of below-subsistence farming, Larry and Sandra invested in teaching organic growing, harvesting, and handling techniques, while also giving support through start-up funding and access to extensive distribution channels. Today these farmers are being paid a fair price for their crops, which means their once impoverished communities are thriving and their kids have a good incentive to go into the family business.
Sustainability is a major priority in everything Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo is doing. They walk the walk in many ways including the use of recycled packaging and being co-founders of Farm Fuel, Inc., a company generating mustard seed-based biodiesel as well as soil amendments.
In addition to winning a wall full of coveted American Cheese Society and World cheese show awards, Harley Farms Goat Dairy http://www.harleyfarms.com/ has become a virtual agritourism mecca for foodies and their families. They come to Pescadero in droves every weekend—directed to the farm by the clever little girl with a goat signs– for tours, gourmet dinners in the barn loft, to taste signature flower-covered chevre, or fromage blanc, ricotta and feta cheeses, as well as to sample the artisan olive oils, and goat milk bath, and body products. Visitors learn about the farms eco-friendly practices, that as many as 500 babies arrive all spring and that each goat produces a gallon of milk a day (milked twice) and through an age-old process, that gallon becomes one pound of cheese.
At the center of the herd is Dee Harley, who was just named one of the Woman Entrepreneurs of the Year by the Women’s Initiative and was the first woman to receive the San Mateo County Farmer of the Year award in 2008. Growing up in Yorkshire, England, Dee knew she wanted to be a farmer, but goats weren’t part of the vision. The picture changed 18 years ago while she was working at Jacobs Farm and agreed to take in six goats for the winter.
A quick study, Dee, who was pregnant, learned how to milk, trim hooves and de-horn—and in the process, she found her future. Using a lot of sweat equity and ingenuity, (and as she is quick to note, tremendous support from the community, her family and a dedicated staff) Dee transformed the abandoned cow dairy next door to her home into a fun, educational, eco-friendly destination which last year celebrated its centennial. It is the only working dairy in San Mateo starring more than 260 Alpine goats and several “guard llamas.” She is very proud of the efforts that garnered the farm the Sustainable San Mateo County Award in 2008. When you go, treat yourself to the popular (and my personal favorites) seasonal pumpkin goat cheese blend and luscious berry jam.
New Good Works article…on LocalDirt
Today we’re beginning a series of profiles of American farmers and ranchers who are using their considerable ingenuity, intuition, dedication and entrepreneurial spirit to bring goodness to all of us in the form of good food. Check out our Good Works Page by Susan Ditz
