When Davon Goodwin of North Carolina was injured in Afghanistan in 2010, his life plans to pursue a PhD in Botany were altered. Instead, he chose to transition into farming.

“When I got on the farm I felt reinvigorated, I felt life,” said Goodwin. “I felt like there was a connection between humans and soil. When I put my hands in the dirt, it changed me.”

Many veterans echo Goodwin’s position and say that farming provides the kind of mission-oriented work that they found satisfying while in the military. Additionally, they have found that it offers them a sense of purpose, opportunity and physical and psychological benefits. 

This is one reason why the Farmer/Veteran Coalition (FVC), a non-profit dedicated to helping veterans and active duty members of the Armed Forces embark on careers in agriculture, is one of 12 programs receiving a grant from the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). 

The funds from the grant will be put toward the FVC’s Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund which is used to help purchase farming equipment for veterans in the early stages of their agriculture careers. Since start-up costs in the farming industry are sometimes out of reach for beginning farmers, these funds are able to make a significant impact lowering the barriers to entry. Additionally, the purchase of equipment gives those with physical limitations the ability to do work on their farms.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs published a study in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation illustrating the potential agriculture has in the assistance to the health of veterans. The researchers found that those who participated in veteran-oriented farm-to-market community agricultural initiatives reported improvements in the physical and mental health factors that impact veteran reintegration.

The farmer/veteran movement got a tremendous boost with the 2014 Farm Bill. Under the Farm Bill, for the first time the USDA designated veterans as a distinct class of beginning farmers, allowing them access to low-interest rate loans to buy animals and equipment.

According to the USDA, the more than one-third of American farmers are over the age of 65. U.S. farmers over the age of 55 also control more than half the country’s farmland while those 35 and younger only make up nine percent of those in the occupation.  Thankfully for the industry, veterans are continuing to take up much of the rein. According to the USDA’s 2017 Census of Agriculture, over 370,000 veterans of all age groups and service years, have made the transition to farming.