Farmer Veterans

Today is Veterans Day and Farm Aid thanks all the veterans who have served our country. In honor of their service, I want to introduce you to a group of veterans who are beginning new careers as farmers and growers of the Good Food Movement.
Not long after the Farm Aid concert in early October, we received an email from Michael O'Gorman, project director of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition (FVC). The FVC brought a group of veterans to St. Louis and mounted an excellent exhibit in our HOMEGROWN Village at the show. Reflecting on the experience, Michael wrote,

"Our group...included twenty two veterans—twenty of them post-9/11, fifteen who served in Iraq or Afghanistan or both, and fifteen of whom are pursuing careers in farming or the good food movement. It was a very powerful experience for these men and women to meet each other—some for the first time—and to feel part of a very unique group that shares such profound experience in common. Farm Aid was a wonderful experience for them to see young farmers treated as heroes—something they are both searching for and deserving of. And of course they all went absolutely berserk when Willie came on stage with our hat!!"

Willie and Farm Aid are proud to have hosted the Farmer-Veteran Coalition in St. Louis and honored to include the FVC as a member of our Farmer Resource Network. The FVC is a California-based non-profit organization whose long-term goal is creating 10,000 new farmers from the ranks of some two million returning post-9/11 veterans. This goal is not merely a pipe dream: rural Americans disproportionately over-populate the ranks of the military, representing roughly 65% of all service members. Fully committed to growing the good food movement and to the notion that nourishing the land helps nourish the soul, the FVC's mission is "to mobilize our food and farming community to create healthy and viable futures for America's veterans by enlisting their help in 1) building our green economy, 2) rebuilding our rural communities, and 3) securing a safe and healthy food supply".

The FVC, which is explicitly non-political, welcomes all returning vets and connects them with help in employment, training, and replenishing their lives on America's farms. In addition to working with veterans groups all over the country, the FVC is currently expanding its connections to new farmer training programs, building its mentoring program among established farmers and food industry professionals, and gathering resources to help veterans find financing for land or further education.

Click here to read more about the Farmer Veterans Coalition's visit to Farm Aid.

Dinner at the White House

Food and politics have always been intertwined. But never before has food been at the center of the political sphere like it is now in Washington, D.C. That's partially due to the many policy issues currently being considered that involve the production and consumption of food—from climate change and school lunch to food safety and health care reform. But the visibility is also due to a commitment by the First Family to bring food and farm issues into their public lives and, therefore, into our lives.

For the first time since Eleanor Roosevelt's WWII Victory Garden, we have a garden on the White House lawn. Mrs. Obama's garden has produced nearly 1,000 pounds of food this year, supplying fresh food to local soup kitchens and learning experiences to schoolchildren from all over the country.

Did you know that in addition to the White House garden, there's a White House beehive (the first in history), and a lucky guy, Charlie Brandt, who has the title of First Beekeeper, or The Honeymaker of the United States. Check out this audio slideshow to learn more, including why Charlie has to inform the Secret Service before he harvests honey!

I've read and heard hundreds of debates on the merits of these projects—heated arguments about whether the administration truly cares about these issues and is committed to create real change for farmers and eaters or whether it's all just a publicity stunt. I suppose we'll continue to wait and see. But in the meantime you can't deny that the Obamas have succeeded in bringing food and farming into our culture, into our living rooms (The White House Garden and the First Lady will make an appearance on the Food Network on January 3, 2010, and around—if not on!—our dinner tables.

There are many opportunities for the President, and all of Washington, to demonstrate their commitment to agriculture beyond growing and beekeeping. From the ongoing dairy crisis to climate change and childhood nutrition, Washington will continue to be an important center for food and farm issues, even after the First Garden is turned over for winter.