- Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by.

- The Subaru Crosstrek.

Designed with adventure in mind.

Built in a zero-landfill plant.

So you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

(soft upbeat music continues) - And the following.

Rain Bird, Corona Tools, and Milorganite.

(soft music) - I'm Joe Lamp'l.

When I created Growing a Greener World, I had one goal to tell stories of everyday people, innovators, entrepreneurs, forward-thinking leaders.

Who are all in ways, both big and small, dedicated to organic gardening and farming, lightening our footprint, conserving vital resources, protecting natural habitats, making a tangible difference for us all.

They're real.

They're passionate.

They're all around us.

They are the game changers, who are literally growing a greener world and inspiring the rest of us to do the same.

Growing a Greener World it's more than a movement, It's our mission.

(soft music) Spend any amount of time talking to farmers and you're sure to hear some inspiring stories.

People working with their hands, people working with nature, and people working to better their communities.

And while growing and producing food is often passed down from generation to generation.

Some of my favorite stories are of the men and women for whom farming is a second career.

And there's a growing Legion of farmers who are putting down roots and feeding this country after defending it in uniform.

(helicopter engine roaring) - [Julie] In 1988, I enlisted in the Navy my senior year after my mother told me not to, because that's what you do as a child.

You do what your parents don't want you to.

And I could have been sent anywhere.

I was in designated and after bootcamp, I was able to go into aviation, Aviation Machinist Mate.

And that kind of set me on my journey for working on aircraft.

Working on the flight deck is like nothing you can ever imagine, and you'd have to experience it to order to understand it.

It's, it's, it's exhilarating.

It's exciting.

It's scary.

It's dangerous.

It's old, it's dirty.

It's loud.

It's hot.

It's all the above.

It's all the above.

But the greatest experience I think that I've ever had Navy wise, as far as my career.

We were able to have president Bush, come out to the carrier a day before we pulled into port after our 10 month deployment.

And I was lucky enough to sit down and talk with him.

And it was an experience I wouldn't trade for the world.

- [Joe] The Navy afforded Julie Hollers, a host of experiences that she'd have for life.

But after a military career spanning two decades.

Julie, by then a mother also knew that she was ready to do something different with that life.

So she came home to Farbotnik Farm in the tiny town of Vallecito, California.

- I think I had the best childhood that any child could have growing up on this farm.

It was barefoot in the summer.

You know, we had a pond to swim in, a creek to go in, fresh fruit and vegetables anytime we want.

we learned to give change back at my grandparents' fruit stand.

It was a Mom and Pops fruit stand.

They grew everything that possibly could be grown in this region, as far as the trees.

And then they did row crops as well.

And they were famous for the Vallecito Brand Wax Pepper.

And it was my great grandfather, Frank Canepa that came to my grandparents and had a pepper seed.

And he said, I think you can do something with the seed.

So it started out real small in this little journey that they had evolved into.

What they became famous for was a Vallecito Brand wax pepper.

They were producing anywhere between 15 to 19,000 pounds in a growing season, 35,000 jars that they were pickling at the time.

It's a mild Italian wax, but it's the way that it's pickled.

It's salt, vinegar, and garlic.

They don't process it.

So the pepper doesn't get soft and mushy.

And that's the original recipe from my grandparents.

It has just the right Christmas, just the right heat to it, just the right flavor, just the right taste.

It's the way that they put them up.

It was a way that they grew them.

It was the right size when they picked him.

And with all those scenarios, you just have the perfect pickle pepper.

(soft music) - [Joe] But even though Julie's family farm was the only place in the world producing the unique Vallecito Wax Pepper.

It wasn't enough to build an empire on.

FDA regulations on the canning of wax peppers made it cost prohibitive to continue that side of the business.

The cannery shut down and the farm being run by her mom was in declined by the time Julie came back home.

- When I came home, I saw how hard she worked every day.

And I didn't see a lot of income coming in from it.

- [Joe] Then Julie found the Farmer Veteran Coalition, a group that facilitates collaboration between America's food growing and military communities.

And suddenly Julie had a valuable ally in the fight to keep her family farm going.

(soft music) - We had basic canned tools.

You know, we had chainsaws, the pruners, the weed whackers and handheld tiller, wheelbarrowa, pitchforks.

That's pretty much how we did everything.

And I think we always thought how nice it would be to have something a little bit bigger, something a little bit better.

I came across Farmer Veteran Coalition in 2011, change in the direction that our farm was heading.

I was doing my pepper seeds out of my bedroom, which you can do.

I don't recommend it, but you can do it.

I was put into the fellowship fund and I was awarded money to purchase a new greenhouse and also a trailer cause I didn't have a pickup.

And then a year and a half later, I received a phone call asking what a tractor would do for our farm.

And first I thought it was maybe some type of a joke and unlimited potential, what a tractor can do for our farm.

And then a couple of weeks later, I was notified that we received a new tractor (tractor engine roaring) and talk about what a difference that made for our farm.

Huge difference for our farm.

A lot of our wheelbarrows got retired because of that.

(Julie giggles) where we used to till the garden with a handheld tiller, it would take us a couple days and it would be a lot of pain in the shoulders.

20 minutes now is done with my garden and it doesn't mean I don't have anything to do now.

It just means now I can concentrate on something else.

So it's, it's opened up that door for more productivity from this farm.

(soothing music) - [Joe] The FVCs founder, Michael O'Gorman is something of a legend in the farming biz.

- [Michael] In 40 years of farming, I managed a six farm operations.

In 1990, I got hired by a young man who was a, started the first organic farm in Salinas Valley.

The best place in the world to go get the farm, took it to a $25 million a year company, at that time was the, the biggest organic farm in the country.

And my last 20 years, I grew $200 million of organic vegetables.

And from start to finish, I put the farms into production.

I got them certified.

I figured out the irrigation systems, bought the farm equipment, hired the crews, put together the planting schedules, figured out the varieties, how to grow everything.

I figured out how to produce things year round, and just grew a lot of food.

- [Joe] But as it did for so many things changed for Michael in the fall of 2001.

- I was farming in Mexico on 9/11.

And my oldest of my four children had taken a job at, at one Liberty Plaza across the street from the twin towers.

So she was there at ground zero, ready to enter her building when the planes hit.

And I was in Mexico trying to get through to her and my other children.

The boarder got shut down to the U S I couldn't get home and see any of my kids for two weeks.

We almost lost the, our farm operation in Mexico.

Cause we had a million dollars of produce heading to the border each week that was turned around and went home to be dumped and thrown away.

And it was just a really traumatic time for, for all of us in the United States.

And for a number of years, I was looking for something to do, you know, just to help make the world a little better.

A study came out from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, and it showed that a dramatic prevalence in the art all voluntary military of the number of men and women that were now coming from rural communities.

It really got me thinking about the farm crisis in the 1800s and the loss of family farms and the loss of opportunity for employment and on the farms for young Americans.

And what are these men and women going to do, when they return home to those communities that we needed them.

We needed our farmers.

And maybe we could, maybe I could do something about that.

If I put my mind to it.

- [Joe] Jim Cochran ran a Berry farm on the California coast and knew Michael by reputation.

- [Jim] He was talking about how he was trying to find a way for the vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, to reintegrate into society in a more friendly and welcoming way.

And I thought, wow, that sounds terrific.

And so, and he said, you know, what do we, how about if we have a meeting about it?

And we could pull in a few farmers from the, the area around here.

And, and so I said, well, we could have it at my place.

Besides the six or eight of our friends who were farmers.

Mostly organic farmers in the, in the central coastal region.

Three women showed up separately and all of them had lost their sons in either a, two of them in Iraq and one of them in Afghanistan.

All within the previous year.

- [Jim] All of a sudden the energy in the room just changed amazingly.

It was, it was electric.

And we thought, holy moly, you know, imagine these women are in deep grief about their sons.

And they're sitting here at these tables, these blue tables here.

And it was, it was a very moving meeting.

You couldn't walk away from that meeting without some tears in your eyes.

That was the moment when, when all of us, all of us farmers and the women saw the power of Michael's idea.

- [Michael] There was something healing about the concept of farming and agriculture.

A certain peace that comes with growing food.

And, and that, you know that, it says, goes back to the Bible in the old Testament, to, to beat your swords, to plowshares.

I used to think that was a, an anti-war statement.

This is actually a real life transformation.

And it's, isn't, there's a power to that concept.

- Michael's idea was simple.

Really, when you think about it.

It was about how to bring back veterans from the war in a welcoming way and give them something to do that gave them a sense of purpose.

Something that they could feel good about and that they could feel proud of.

And that was something totally different from the way it was after the Vietnam war.

And so all of us said, well, we're, we're in.

- [Joe] And the Farmer Veteran Coalition was born, but for Michael getting it off the ground would mean finding veterans who wanted to be farmers.

- We've now given over a million dollars in direct support to veterans in the real critical first couple of years of their operations.

We never give money directly to the veteran, but we will, we'll give money to a vendor.

Well a third-party vendor, we'll make a purchase on their behalf.

So I spent the first year in my pickup truck driving.

If I heard of a veteran that was interested in agriculture, I would drive four or five, 600 miles to go meet them and talk to them and see how I could help him.

And by the end of the year, maybe eight or nine veterans, and they ended one year.

Now we have 8,000.

(slow music) - [Joe] Sitting with Michael and Jim in the very room where that first meeting took place.

It didn't take long for us all to find a mutual friend.

You may remember our season three visit to the veterans farm in Jacksonville, Florida.

That's where we first met Former Army Sergeant and Purple Heart recipient, Adam Burke.

- [Michael] When I talked about 2008 and getting eight or nine veterans, Adam was one of them.

- [Joe] Adam had returned home from service and was receiving therapy after an IED blast in Iraq.

And he had reached out to Michael about starting a blueberry farm.

- [Joe] Well, my story where that, on that, unfolded during our interview with him out in the fields.

And I, and I, I speak a lot around the country and I talk about some of the most memorable moments from episodes that we filmed in the past.

And that one always comes up in the few that I talk about.

and I can, and I'm not gonna be able to get through it again today without probably choking up.

But I'm in front of an audience talking about our time with Adam and how he explained how he came about to create Red, White, Blueberry Farm.

And the story he told us was that he and his wife were sitting in the food court in a mall.

- And that we were having lunch and I had this one young guy to the left side of me.

And he said, you know, if you're not gonna finish that lunch, I'll finish it for you.

And I looked down and under the table, he had a, a, a third ID, 3rd Infantry Division patch and a duffel bag and a sleeping bag.

And I knew this young guy was fresh off the boat from Iraq and was living on the streets and didn't have anything to show for it.

And I really tugged at my heart and it was real tough.

And I gave that guy that lunch.

Man, there's thousands of guys coming back like this.

It was then that the idea came to me that I grew up on a farm.

(slow music) - And Adam knew, you know, with his background in farming, he said, I just have to follow through on this and create this opportunity.

Cause he knew what farming could do, not only for himself, but for these veterans that were coming back home.

- [Joe] Adam went on to start veterans farm.

Where he's employed dozens of veterans looking for a fresh start after serving their country, just like he once had.

But even Adam himself needed that first helping hand.

- [Michael] So I bought Adam his first blueberries.

- [Joe] Wow - [Michael] Yeah.

So.

- How perfect was that?

(Michael giggles) It was meant to be.

- [Michael] Yes - [Joe] Making that transition from soldier to civilian sometimes proves to be the biggest challenge of them all.

That was the case for retired master Sergeant Mike Reynolds, after a traumatic brain injury ended his 18 year military career.

- You come, you came home and you, you, you know, you not broke, but you don't, you don't know, you don't know what's wrong.

Being a soldier is hard ride.

You know, you can't, you can't turn it on and off.

You got ample place to go to, you know, and you gotta have something to do.

If you don't, you don't have something to do.

Then everything that you used to do, just eat you up inside.

- [Joe] Unable to return to his pre-military job as a paramedic and firefighter.

Mike turned to some dark places, but then he reconnected with Eddie Brannon, a local pastor who also ran a beef farm outside Atlanta.

- One, one Sunday morning.

He came up to me after church and he always called me preacher man.

And he said, preacher man, I know you got a phone.

Do you ever need any help on the phone?

I said, gosh, I need help all the time Mike.

My farms is small farm.

And we, I just got about 35 head of cattle 40.

And I said, I don't make enough money to pay someone to do the work.

But he looked at the floor the whole time.

He said, I got to, I got to find a purpose.

I don't have a purpose.

And I said, Mike, see you in the morning, at eight o'clock.

And he meet me at the farm at eight o'clock in the morning.

And he's been calling me boss, man, ever since then.

- [Joe] That started a two year working relationship on Eddie's farm, where both men got the help they needed.

- [Mike] You think about the bad and you think about the good and, and it make it inconvenient to think about the bad.

It makes it easier to think about the good.

So you can either think about what happened, you know, or you can, you can think about the big Cows.

You know.

(Mike giggles) Nope.

Nope.

And being stepped on.

- [Eddie] My goodness.

He worked on the tractors, he delivered calves.

He just, I began following him aound.

You know, and, and shadowing him because I learned a lot from him.

But you know, I began to see Mike had found purpose in his life.

Again, Mike has got a farm.

Now.

- It kind of went from me, trying to find out and learn a little bit about farming to, to now we're a farming family.

So, you know, unfortunately, you know, I didn't come from a farming family, you know?

And so, so I didn't have much equipment and stuff.

and you can afford to buy that farm or you can afford to buy the equipment, but you can't afford to do both.

You know?

And so, so, you know, I, I got lucky cause you know, I mean he says you buy that farm and you can use and I can use his stuff, you know, until till just gradually, you know, could we, you know, gradually, you know, get our own stuff, you know.

- You know, I look back and I've done so little, but I'm able now to furnish Mike with the equipment that he can't afford to buy.

And my act in turn, I believe one day, so he's going to be mentoring a veteran farmer at his farm.

And then I believe Michael find somebody else to come back out here to help me on my farm.

But the, the thing where the Farmer Veteran Coalition is just so awesome to see some of those men, to hear the story of where they came from and how they've gotten into farming, various types of farming.

and how they were so excited and how they have a purpose in life and how they're now at the point where they can give back to someone else to help them find their purpose.

- You don't wanna walk around and say, Hey I'm Mike, that disabled veteran, you know, or I'm Mike that used to be a soldier or Mike that used to be a paramedic or I'm Mike that used to be a fireman, you know, or, you know, I'm, I'm Mike that used to remember everybody in my little girls, Sunday school class name, you know, you won't be able to say, you know, Mike something, you know, and so now I say, I'm Mike, the farmer.

(slow upbeat music) - [Michael] There's a power one gets from doing something that is real and necessary.

And you know, so the farmer veterans in our program have successively done the two most real and most necessary things that they can see out there.

And it makes for powerful people.

Farming is not an easy profession.

And interestingly, it was the veterans themselves.

It was the first veteran I worked with that turned to me one day and said, Michael, "we didn't go in the military because it was easy.

We want to farm because it's difficult.

We're attracted to the challenge."

And, and what I've really seen is that what's really works for the veterans is in agriculture, is they find a sense of purpose as great and as encompassing, as meaningful and as difficult as it was serving in the military.

(slow music) - It has been an honor to meet this heroes and share their stories with you.

But there are thousands, more men and women out there who have already served our country once and would love nothing more than to serve it again on our nation's farms.

If you're a veteran or know somebody that would be interested in more information on the Farmer Veteran Coalition.

We have that information on our website under the show notes for this episode.

Website address it's the same as our show name.

It's GROWINGAGREENERWORLD.COM.

I'm Joe Lamp'l.

Thanks for joining us, everybody.

And we'll see you back here next time for more Growing a Greener World.

(upbeat music) - Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by.

- The Subaru Crosstrek.

Designed with adventure in mind.

Built in a zero-landfill plant.

So you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

- And the following, Rain Bird, Corona Tools, and Milorganite.

() - Continue the garden learning from Growing a Greener World, Joe lamp'ls online gardening academy offers classes designed to teach gardeners of all levels from the fundamentals to master skills.

You can take each class on your own schedule from anywhere plus opportunities to ask Joe questions about your specific garden.

In real time.

Courses are available online to enroll, go to growingagreenerworld.com/learn (upbeat music)