New Jersey veteran Stephen Robinson reflects on the logistics of growing mushrooms and shipping them to farmers’ markets and restaurants — a far cry from the logistics he handled as an Army convoy commander during the battles in Iraq.
He runs an urban farm in southern New Jersey called Urban Farmer Steve, where he grows mushrooms, microgreens, vegetables and flowers.
“Mushrooms have become my passion, I eat a lot of them, I grow them for farmers markets and restaurants,” he said. Farming and being close to farming “just gives me life, gives me energy and gives me hope.”
Veterans like Robinson are steadily flocking to agriculture, a field historically linked to the military: One in six farms has a grower who is currently serving or has served in the military. However, in recent years the number of military farmers has declined. In 2022, the United States had 305,753 producers who had served or were serving in the military, according to a Department of Agriculture census, an 18% decrease from 2017.
To help stem the decline, provide career opportunities, and attract a changing veteran population, training programs focused on returning veterans to the field have been launched. Robinson considers himself part of a new generation of farmers, a city dweller who grew up in Philadelphia and New Jersey and returned from the war to an urban environment.
A black veteran, Robinson plans to help others in his community discover the opportunities he says abound in agriculture, even in the city — and there are resources and opportunities available for people “who might look different “.
From the battlefield to urban fields
Robinson couldn’t have imagined his journey when he enlisted in the Army during his freshman year of college, right after the 9/11 attacks.
“It brought the country together,” Robinson said.
His father served in the Navy and Air Force, so it seemed like a natural fit. He was commissioned as an officer in 2003, but before completing his four years of study, he was deployed to Iraq in 2005.
“It was a very hot time when I was there, we were shot at, we were bombed,” said Robinson, now 41. “We were on the road with IEDs, we were in the heat of battle at that point.”
He left military service in 2010 and, like many other veterans, didn’t know what to do next. He struggled to move from a type of environment where you’re “on edge” all the time, “trained to be vigilant” and “always ready for an attack or for something crazy to happen.” produce”.
“It’s hard to stop or turn that down once you leave the military,” he said.
“I still haven’t adjusted to civilian life, to be quite honest,” Robinson added. “It’s something we’re all still working on.”
He held a few jobs, including as a claims representative with the Social Security Administration, but didn’t find the right one.
Then he discovered Veterans to Farmers, a Colorado-based nonprofit, through online research. Buck Adams, a Marine Corps veteran, started the organization in 2013 after five years running his own farm, Circle Fresh Farms, and training veterans in agriculture.
Since its inception and its first training programs, veterans have led the organization. Taylor Drew, a Navy veteran and executive director, participated in the program in 2017. He now farms in the mountains of northwest Colorado with his wife and three children.
“It’s a good life but a hard life,” Drew said, adding that he’s never been more satisfied after stumbling around for a few years after leaving the military.
Drew helps run the organization and what he says is the compelling need to transition veterans into agriculture. He says their small organization has trained 220 veterans since 2013 and the network is “really strong.”
Supported by a mix of government funds and private donations with an approximate annual budget of $250,000, Drew said the group received 150 applications last year for the 18 locations of its hydroponics (controlled agriculture) program.
Participant and Navy veteran John Bauman, originally from Chicago, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and now rents two plots of land near Denver, selling his produce at farmers’ markets. His first crop was carrots, and he said farming made him “feel better.”
A new type of farmer
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as the number of veterans living in the United States declines, so do the demographics. Demographic models show that women, Hispanics, blacks and adults under 50 will make up a large proportion of the veteran population by 2048, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center study, changing needs veterans interested in agriculture. The Department of Agriculture’s census found that black farmers who served in the military also increased, accounting for 2.5 percent of producers who served in the military, compared to 1.2 percent of all U.S. producers.
“We must do more to support apprenticeships and train the next generation of farmers,” Sen. Mike Braun, an Indiana Republican, wrote in a report on the county’s rapidly aging farmers. Americans are more likely to encounter a farmer over 65 than under 44, and with a global increase of 2 billion people expected by 2050, there will need to be enough farmers to farm food. “The food supply, some manufacturing industries and even national security depend on the future of agriculture,” Braun said.
Supporting urban farmers could be part of the solution. Urban farmers are generally younger than the overall farming population, with an average age of 44, and 32% of them make a living from farming, according to a report from the National Center for Appropriate Technology.
The Veterans Administration offers many programs for veterans to learn to farm, and other nonprofits provide services, such as Armed to Farm, which offers an urban agriculture program in New Orleans, and the Farmer Veteran Coalition, which provides support to veterans entering the field.
The USDA Farm Service Agency has issued a total of $862 million in loans through Oct. 31, the federal agency told CBS News, helping more than 4,000 veterans, but many say demand is exceeding by far the offer.
“We are seeing growing interest among veterans in building a life and career centered around agriculture – both in urban and rural settings,” said Jaime Wood, director of strategic initiatives at the USDA, which works to support the veteran population. , told CBS News. She said USDA has a full-time veteran liaison on the team who previously served in the military.
Urban techniques bring old-fashioned flourishing
Robinson applied to participate in the Veterans to Farmers program in fall 2021. The pandemic gave him an extra push into agriculture, he said. “I noticed limited food and a lack of products”
He began the 8-10 week program in 2022, flying between New Jersey and Denver for the hydroponics program, which is the technique of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil.
On Mondays, veterans enrolled in the program took an intensive course in “Agriculture 101,” and on Tuesdays, they completed hands-on work on different farms and tours to learn about agricultural operations.
Because he lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where winters are cold, Robinson thought it was important to learn hydroponic farming, which regulates the growing environment and allows great control over it. who was grown and how.
“It’s also very consistent,” he said.
Robinson began growing microgreens, which he said don’t require much initial investment and can grow in 10 to 14 days. It quickly expanded its microgreen offerings to include lettuce, herbs and mushrooms, which are easier to grow in urban settings. He sells them to restaurants, farmers’ markets and consumers.
Researchers at the National Center for Appropriate Technology found that urban farmers can farm and raise livestock and also be structured around the “social aspects of urban agriculture, which include food security, community building, and education “.
Urban farming has its limits: Research showed that half of urban farms surveyed in 2013 had sales of around $10,000 and needed another form of income to survive. Urban farms often lack the scale to produce large quantities of food and instead focus on selling niche products to low-volume customers, with an emphasis on quality and price rather than the quantity, according to a study.
Robinson said that regardless of the challenges, he is committed to growing his business because it’s not just about money, but also about personal fulfillment. Learning to farm has completely changed his perspective and his life over the past two years and he no longer struggles like before.
“When you’re connected to the earth, you’re anchored to the earth,” Robinson said. “I feel like it all comes from agriculture.”
Farming keeps him rooted in his community and his life’s mission has evolved from taking lives to “just being close to life.”
