New York agriculture faces a looming employment
crisis, but not the kind that normally leaves job seekers skittish.
A rise in job capacity in the agriculture industry is
not being met with enough skilled people ready to fill the expected surge in
high-paying, productive careers. An innovative Cornell project is betting that
military veterans are the answer.
Farm Ops, an initiative from the Cornell Small Farms
Program, is the first of its kind in the country to give returning veterans the
opportunity to learn agriculture via their G.I. Bill benefits. The program
allows earned military benefits to be deployed in agriculture training, opening
the way for young, hardworking men and women with the skills to be successful
in a technologically advanced field to become the farmers of tomorrow.
"After leaving the military, our veterans enter
the workforce with the dedication, grit and work ethic to succeed in whatever
they wish to do," said Anu Rangarajan, director of the Cornell Small Farm
Program and senior extension associate in the Horticulture Section of the
School of Integrative Plant Sciences. "Until now, the job-training benefits
they earned have not been applied to agriculture. Our program offers pathways,
information and support to enter the agricultural workforce.
"It's a win for our veterans and a win for the
New York agricultural industry that desperately needs these talented
people," she said.
Funding for the program is supported by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
and a recent $115,000 appropriation from the New York State Enacted Budget as
part of the Planting Seeds Initiative spearheaded by State Sen. Patty Ritchie,
R-48th District, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Through the program, veterans receive on-the-job
training experience at pilot farm sites across the state. Once a farm is
approved by the Division of Veterans' Affairs, veterans can work at that farm
for six to 24 months to learn all aspects of a particular farm enterprise, such
as dairy or orchard management. For the first time, veterans can use their
military housing allowances to support their on-the-job training in
agriculture.
For those looking for short-term educational
opportunities, the Small Farm Program and the National Center for Appropriate
Technology offer "Armed to Farm," a five-day intensive farm and
business training program teaching the fundamentals of farming. Online courses
from the Small Farm Program help veterans (and others) remotely learn the
details of farm start-up.
Equipping young veterans to be successful is a natural
fit for an aging workforce that has been growing grayer just as the job outlook
has become a whole lot greener.
Since 2002, the number of farmers in New York over the
age of 65 has grown while those under the age of 45 has declined by 30 percent.
The past decade has seen a rise in beginning farmers joining the workforce, but
a majority of those are over the age of 45.
That disconnect
leaves farms vulnerable in the coming decades