Column by the Chancellor in Hawai'i Island Chamber of Commerce ...

Message from UH Hilo Chancellor Donald O. Straney
Chamber Connection Newsletter
Hawai?i Island Chamber of Commerce

November 2012

Big Island?s Veteran to Farmer program is national pilot, community outreach at its best

The University of Hawai?i at Hilo is a partner in an exciting community-based initiative that addresses the agricultural capacity on the Big Island. The Hawai?i ?Veteran to Farmer? initiative, designed solely for U.S. military veterans and funded by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), is a national pilot program providing certificate level hands-on farming skills training curriculum, classroom-based business training, business start-up support, and health monitoring for veterans.

A key goal of the initiative is to enable veterans to develop the necessary skills to farm. UH Hilo College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources is proposing a new undergraduate certificate in agriculture designed especially for participants in the Veteran to Farmer program. Completion of the program can enable veterans to create new farm businesses and to meet requirements to acquire leases and loans needed to start a farm. Some participants who complete the certificate program will be ready to pursue a bachelor?s degree at UH Hilo in addition to becoming farmers.

The initiative is part of one of the 29 projects in the Hawai?i Island 21st Century Economy Roadmap, a comprehensive plan for a self-sufficient economy for the island developed by Rivertop Energy Solutions, LLC. Rivertop, headed by CEO David Ruf, is a project planning firm assisting rural communities and federal agencies with the development of sustainable and economically viable business models built on a foundation of indigenous and renewable resources.

With the participation of key community and government stakeholders on the island, Ruff and his team at Rivertop are designing the Hawai?i Veteran to Farmer program as a pilot program for the nation. In addition to Rivertop and UH Hilo, partners in the program include Hawai?i Community College, the State Department of Agriculture, the Hawai?i Island Economic Development Board, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Mealani Research Station, the Pu?ukapu Agricultural Community Facility, Native Hawaiian leaders and organizations, several community-based groups, and local farmers in Waimea on the Big Island.

The certificate program supports UH Hilo?s goal of enhanced outreach to under-represented groups in the communities of North H?m?kua and Waimea. The required courses all presently exist within UH Hilo?s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management and will be taught at the North Hawai?i Education Research Center in Honoka?a, and at WOW Farm, the Mealani Experiment Station, and other agricultural facilities in Waimea with no cost to the university.

The university is working with the VA on the certification for the Veteran to Farmer program, also known as ?Farming for the Working Class,? to allow veterans to use their GI Bill funding to cover tuition for the program. The VA will completely pay for a coordinator, UH Hilo lecturers teaching the courses, other instructional costs, and the participant?s tuition.

The pilot program is now underway with 12 students with the goal of 12 working farms at the end of the pilot. The participants have committed to continuing as instructors beyond their certification so the model can grow exponentially. If each participant helps even just two additional veteran homesteaders with practical hands-on training, there could be 24 additional working farms within the next two years in the rural homestead community of Waimea.

While the pilot focuses on participation by Native Hawaiian veterans, non-native veterans are eligible to participate. This is truly a community empowerment and community economic development model that can grow exponentially in a relatively short period to address our food security and economic development challenges in our own rural communities while serving as a model for the country.

For more information about the Veteran to Farmer program and other news from the Office of the Chancellor, visit my blog at http://hilo.hawaii.edu/blog/chancellor/

Aloha,
Don Straney

Source: http://hilo.hawaii.edu/blog/chancellor/2012/11/01/column-chamber-newsletter-november-2012/

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