Veterans pivot to farming program to grow food and their own businesses
A program in Colorado is teaching military veterans how to use skills learned during their time in service to help them build their own business.
The Veterans to Farmers program at Chatfield Farms Denver Botanic Gardens helps all veterans, including those who are fully disabled, those who have PTSD and even others who have tried to disassociate themselves with the military altogether.
The non-profit program at Chatfield Farms — which sits on 700 acres and is managed in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — teaches and trains veterans in agriculture each year, from beekeeping to raising their own food.
"We tend to think of, you know, some guy on a tractor in the middle of a field and that is, in fact, farming, but it's only one very small avenue," said Veterans to Farmers founder Richard Murphy, a third generation Air Force veteran who took up farming and gardening as a hobby after his military discharge in 2003.
Murphy said the program has business and farming education classes that teach veterans a variety of careers in agriculture. He said the program is funded by grants, and that veterans make $15 an hour.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2017 began tracking how many military service members work in agricultural production.
According to Census of Agriculture data released by USDA, in 2022 there were 305,753 farmers who had served or were serving in the US military — accounting for 9% of the country’s 3.4 million farmers.
In 2022, the U.S. veteran population was 16.2 million, according to the U.S. Census.
Deke Letson said he served 10 years in the army, including two deployments in Iraq, where he says he suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Five years after he was honorably discharged, Letson said he started having flashbacks and found out he had delayed onset post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He said advice from doctors led him to the program.
"It's so much more than just farming. It's taking care of your mental health. It's slowing down," Letson said.
Jason Gindhart is an alumnus of the Veterans to Farmers program whose responsibility is now to help manage bees at Chatfield Farms.
"You have to make sure all your zippers are zipped up, your flops are down. If not, a bee will get in a sting you," Gindhart said.
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Gindhart said taking care of bees gives him purpose.
"I'm a 100 percent disabled veteran and medically retired police officer, so I can't really hold a regular job anymore," Gindhart said.
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Royce Hale is a farm educator at Denver Botanic Gardens who said the program’s teamwork and military family mindset reminds them of their service in the military.
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"When I got out of the navy, I didn't — I never talked about the military. I left that life behind me. And when I went through this program I realized that being around veterans, and veterans that wanted to farm and garden, was a missing part of me," Hale said.
The Veterans to Farmers program runs all year long. This season began in May, a week before Memorial Day weekend.