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 County, California,
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.
