Showing posts with label Posttraumatic stress disorder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Posttraumatic stress disorder. Show all posts

Monday, May 12, 2014

How One California Farm Will Provide Organic Vegetables and Hope for Veterans

by Nomad

One farm in Monterey County California offers an example of a innovative idea to help US veterans transition back into civilian life. By providing vocational agriculture training, such farms can provide fresh food for the local community.
More importantly, it offers them a safe place among like-minded to begin a long healing process.

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wound down, President Obama faced  a challenge that his predecessor never had to worry about: How to find work of millions of veterans returning home in an already-depressed economy. So that was no small feat and some steady progress has been made.

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released in March of this year, the unemployment rate for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces (at any time since September 2001) edged down to 9.0 percent in 2013.

And where there is unemployment, there is homelessness. At one point, around 2006, one in four homeless Americans was a veteran. Those numbers have been in steady decline due to an improved economy and increased funding to those on the streets. Although the situation might have improved, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said last year that the Obama Administration goals remain the same: to eliminate the problem by the end of 2015.
That won't be won't be easy.
  
While there is still so much more that needs to be done for those who risked life and limb,  that duty is much harder when partisanship seems to cripple progress in Washington.
The shameful fact is that now that the veterans are no longer so vital to the defense of the nation, many  legislators in the capitol have turned their backs.

A Veterans bill,  a sweeping $21 billion bill that would have expanded medical, educational and other benefits for veterans, was derailed in the Senate in February this year  by the Republicans. They dismissed the legislation as election year campaign and an example of unnecessary and excessive spending.  
That's why, despite the discouraging lack of significant progress, it was it was inspiring to read about one small project on the other side of the nation.

Farming the Pastures of Heaven
A pair of Marine Corps veterans in California, John Wagner and Bryan Showalter, are business partners in a venture which may offer one answer to the problem. 
Their 20-acre Semper Fresh Farm, located in Corral de Tierra in Monterey CountyCalifornia, is part commercial farm and part vocational training for veterans.  
The project which opened last week, is still operating on a rather small scale. The initial market for their organic heirloom tomatoes will be at the farm, as well as local restaurants and other farmers' markets in the area. Once the farm is open to the public later this year, visitors will be able to  this year for the public to come and harvest the 100% organically-grown tomatoes. Picking off the vine is about as close to fresh as you can possibly be. 
The farm is located in Steinbeck country, and provides the setting for stories in his book  The Pastures of Heaven
Can't get a better advertisement than that.