Holy Hemp!

2014-06-26T15:29:25+00:00

Hemp plants are growing in American soil again.  Hemp is a variety of cannabis, a cousin of marijuana, but contains o.3% or less of the psychoactive component THC - so the only thing you'll get if you smoke it is a headache.  Farmers don't have carte blanche yet for wholesale industrial planting, but odds are that it's not too far in the distance.  The recent Farm Bill removes hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and allows research to grow for seed. There's dollars in them thar hills!  Canada is reaping in a neat $1 billion in hemp to feed the market [...]

Holy Hemp!2014-06-26T15:29:25+00:00

Holy Hemp!

2014-06-26T15:29:25+00:00

Hemp plants are growing in American soil again.  Hemp is a variety of cannabis, a cousin of marijuana, but contains o.3% or less of the psychoactive component THC - so the only thing you'll get if you smoke it is a headache.  Farmers don't have carte blanche yet for wholesale industrial planting, but odds are that it's not too far in the distance.  The recent Farm Bill removes hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and allows research to grow for seed. There's dollars in them thar hills!  Canada is reaping in a neat $1 billion in hemp to feed the market [...]

Holy Hemp!2014-06-26T15:29:25+00:00

Farmer-Veteran Internship at Oklahoma Farm

2014-01-04T02:02:33+00:00

Ground Operations isn't really a job posting board, but this came in and it seems like I ought to put it out there ….  Bootstrap Farm in Yale, Oklahoma is looking for a full-time intern for 2014 that could turn into a Farm Manager job - and they contacted us because they are keen on a veteran getting the job! It's a paid job on a 10-acre CSA with crops and heritage turkeys. They're offering a monthly stipend, with housing and plenty to eat.  If you're interested, check out the job description below -- it's VERY complete about what they're looking [...]

Farmer-Veteran Internship at Oklahoma Farm2014-01-04T02:02:33+00:00

Drift Catchers – Not Ocean Fish, but Pesticides

2013-10-22T16:00:04+00:00

The farmer-veterans in "Ground Operations" have chosen to grow organically (whether certified or not) they resist using the chemical approach to farming for several reasons.  Many have been exposed to chemicals in the war that have left them with damaging health effects, some just don't want to support the use of fossil-fuel based inputs that require us to go to war to get them. But what do you do when your neighbors are using them?  And not just a spray can, but airplanes laying down blankets of mist over acres or miles of crops? Ask Laura Krouse, an organic grower in [...]

Drift Catchers – Not Ocean Fish, but Pesticides2013-10-22T16:00:04+00:00

Veterans Farming in Washington

2013-10-06T21:00:12+00:00

We played "connect the dots" this week, for veterans who are or want to be farming in the green, green, green state of Washington. First stop, the Port Townsend Film Festival where Ground Operations scored the award for "Inspiring Community" and learned of a new project, the Peace Patch Farm (PPF). In its infancy, PPF is the dream-child of farm owner, Liz Goldstein, and Vet Connect founder (and master gardener) Bob Logue. It is intended to be an Ag training program for veterans through Washington State University's Sustainable Agriculture program, which will offer reduced tuition rates. Starting with one veteran, they plan [...]

Veterans Farming in Washington2013-10-06T21:00:12+00:00

Urban Ag gets a Boost – So Does Farmer-Veteran

2013-10-03T16:46:58+00:00

So I'm reading the L.A. Times this morning, thrilled to read about our new CA tax law allowing urban property owners to reduce the assessed value of their land (read lower taxes) if they will commit it to urban agriculture for 5 years.  And I think wow, I've got to tell D'Artagnan, one of the veterans in "Ground Operations" who's doing urban Ag in L.A. -- and by golly, there he is being quoted in the next two paragraphs!! D'Artagnan Scorza is a force of nature, inciting his food-scarce community to take up rakes and shovels, and build their own food [...]

Urban Ag gets a Boost – So Does Farmer-Veteran2013-10-03T16:46:58+00:00

Reversed equation: Farmers to Soldiers

2013-08-28T16:32:22+00:00

Okay, I knew that about 40% of the military comes from rural farm communities.  I assumed a lot of that was because with the mechanized industrial food system, we've put a lot of people out of work with our bigger badder machines. And that is probably true. What is creepy is what celebrity-farmer Joel Salatin recently heard straight from the mouth of our Secretary of Agriculture about why we need so many new farmers: (paraphrased by Joel) "....although rural America only has 16 percent of the population, it gives 40 percent of the personnel to the military. Say what? You mean [...]

Reversed equation: Farmers to Soldiers2013-08-28T16:32:22+00:00

Monsanto Gives a “World Food Prize”… to itself!

2013-07-02T15:22:40+00:00

How typical.  The same company that tells you to believe genetically engineered food is healthy because THEY say it's healthy, has now sponsored a World Food Prize that's been given to... guess who?  Their own Robert Fraley, Exec.VP & Chief Technology Officer. Journalist Mark Bittman ("on food and all things related") from the New York Times makes a grand case for a "Food Sovereignty Prize" to showcase the many people around the world who are actually working to create a sustainable and fair food system. (We could nominate some of our farmer-veterans in "Ground Operations"!) Zeyaur Khan, a plant pathologist  in [...]

Monsanto Gives a “World Food Prize”… to itself!2013-07-02T15:22:40+00:00

Veteran Organic Farming Program

2013-05-19T16:07:24+00:00

Wow - what a find in Pennsylvania! Delaware Valley College is working in collaboration with the Rodale Institute (the origin of the organic farming movement in the U.S.) to offer a 36-credit certificate program in organic farming to veterans. The one-year program will incorporate classroom courses on animal science, marketing, plants disease diagnosis and entomology during the school year and then students will take hands-on experience at the Rodale farm -- and that is one fantastic farm, I can tell you from having seen it.  Made me want to go intern there myself and forget filmmaking!! DelVal (college) is proud to [...]

Veteran Organic Farming Program2013-05-19T16:07:24+00:00

Ground Operations Film Clip: Brother & Sister Inherit Civil War farm

2013-05-11T05:39:30+00:00

Matthew Gilliard saw the Berlin Wall come down in the Army. Althea Gilliard was a Navy M.P. at Guantanamo before finishing two degrees in Forensic Psychology.  Now they are returning to the family farm, organic since the days of the Civil War, and now one of only two African-American farms listed in the Georgia Centennial Family Farm register.

Ground Operations Film Clip: Brother & Sister Inherit Civil War farm2013-05-11T05:39:30+00:00
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