Providing Veterans the Skill to Farm

MEET CHRISTOPHER LUJAN. He does not back down from a challenge. He has a thirst for knowledge, is rooted by family and has a deep passion for agriculture.

So it’s not surprising that this former Marine sought out one of the only programs in the country to offer military veterans a paid internship to study and gain hands-on agricultural knowledge from world-renown researchers at Florida’s flagship land grant university.

He took advantage of an opportunity in the Veterans Florida Agriculture Program (VFAP). The nine-month paid internship program provides veterans with a learning experience and the opportunity to compete in top agricultural careers.

“This program has the right mindset,” said Lujan. “It mixes applied learning with a real hands-on approach that gives you the skill-set to succeed in agriculture.

VFAP is currently offered at seven University of Florida/ Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Research and Education Centers across the state and is expanding. VFAP is available at no cost to veterans.

Jack Payne, UF’s senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources says that as an institution of public higher education, UF/IFAS is all about second chances and creating opportunities. “We see in veterans

a motivated, service-oriented group with one thing between them and success in agriculture – opportunity,” said Payne.

Six months of the internship is at the designated research center where students spend the first foursix weeks on rotation with a farm crew and various research faculty learning about plant production,

food safety, agricultural challenges, field preparation techniques, seasonal crop harvesting, pesticide alternatives and advanced research.

The last three months of the internship involve working at a farm or ranch or local agribusiness. Throughout the entire nine-month internship, participants are paid a competitive wage of $13 per hour.

“There is a lot of opportunity in agriculture that isn’t on the farm,” said Simon Bollin, Agribusiness Development Manager, Hillsborough County Economic Development. “Careers range from selling seeds or chemicals to driving trucks. If you were a logistic sergeant in the military, you can now move grain or strawberries.” According to a 2015 United States Department of Agriculture report, it is estimated that one million new farmers will be needed over the next 10 years due to a retiring workforce. Veterans can help fill that employment gap.

Florida has the third largest veteran population in the nation. Bollin saw a need to connect the veteran’s military expertise and skillset to agriculture. It was through his foresight that VFAP was created in 2016.

To date, seven veterans have graduated from the program. “We sit down with each veteran after six months and evaluate them. We find out where they want to go from here. We then place them with a farm or agribusiness in the local community,” said Bollin. “We have a 100 percent offer rate from the company they intern with.”

Adam Webster completed his internship at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center

(GCREC) in Balm where he was offered a job in the Weed Science lab.

“The program directly translated to positions in agriculture,” said Webster. “The experience and knowledge gained has opened opportunities that were not available to me as a person with no agricultural knowledge.”

“I plan on starting a small farm of my own in the future and this would have been much harder to do without the training provided through the program,” added Webster.

Lujan says that he researched many programs when he got out of the military in 2010. He said that what drew him to the VFAP at the GCREC was the fact that it focused on mentorship and took a realistic approach to learning.

“Farming is planning. You’ve got to think strategically at the five, ten and twenty marks,” said Lujan. “This program teaches you that and is a good fit for a military mindset.”

The program’s partnership with Veterans Florida provides veterans firsthand networking opportunities with business professionals and entrepreneurs throughout the state.

After the program, participants are encouraged to pursue various online UF agriculture certificate programs.

“This is a multi-tiered program,” said Lujan. “The caliber of mentors, the networking, access to knowledge and the lifelong connections to agriculture is all built into the program.”

TO LEARN MORE about the program or to apply to the program, visit http://www. veteransflorida.org/agriculture/.

Participants in the VFAP at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center experience firsthand the production of emerging commercial crops in Florida such as hops, artichokes and pomegranates.

The program’s partnership with the Veterans Florida provides veterans firsthand networking opportunities with business professionals and entrepreneurs throughout Hillsborough County.