America’s military veterans are revered for their service but still often struggle to find stateside employment when they return home. The Farmer Veteran Coalition would like to change that.
The national nonprofit organization is hosting its third annual Farmer Veteran Stakeholders Conference next month at Michigan State University. It’s the largest gathering of its kind and promises to feature educational tracks, farm visits, guest panels, featured speakers, community building and more.
“Our national conferences have been invaluable to building this important farmer veteran movement,” according to FVC executive director Michael O’Gorman. “We’ve seen dialog launched between our federal partners turn into national policy. We’ve seen important insight into what makes farming healing for veterans turn into valuable research. And we’ve seen the veterans themselves forma supportive community that has helped them immensely in their individual endeavors.”
Among this year’s anticipated highlights is a panel of four successful veteran farmers. There will also be a presentation that reveals exclusive findings of a landmark Veterans Affairs study that looked at how “veteran-oriented agriculture” has made an impact on transitioning veterans.
For more information, visit www.farmvetco.org/fvsc.
