Helping Veterans on their Regenerative Journey
To assist U.S. military veterans in preparing for important and fulfilling careers in regenerative agriculture, the non-profit Soil Health Academy is excited to announce the creation of “Battlefields to Fertile Fields” (BF2FF).
The BF2FF program has been developed to provide interested veterans with practical, on-site learning and training opportunities featuring some of the nation’s leading regenerative farmers and ranchers. To provide foundational education, the program will also award veterans with scholarships to SHA’s world-renowned, three-day on-farm schools.
The program’s learning content will be adapted as needed to comply with respective service branch transitioning programs, and the individual training needs of discharged veterans—all of which will help participants prepare for successful careers in regenerative farming, ranching or associated fields.
Please read the information below to see which option would be most appropriate for you. Because you may be eligible for more than one, you can start the application process for any of the programs by filling out this application form, so feel free to get started anytime!
Interested in Participating?
Veterans
If you're a veteran that's interested in one or more of the options below, please start out by filling out our application form. We will follow up with you upon receipt.
Host Farms
Are you interested in talking to us about potentially becoming a host farm? We are looking for regenerative farms to partner with. Apply at the link below.
Three Regenerative Options
Veteran Scholarships
Through its in-person and online course offerings, the Soil Health Academy is helping farmers first understand and then successfully apply nature’s time-proven, regenerative agriculture principles in order to grow healthier soil, food, farms and communities. Thanks to the support of several businesses, organizations and individual donors, SHA has established scholarship funds to offset the costs of these educational offerings.
The veteran scholarship option is available to anyone who is currently serving or who has been honorably discharged from service. The amount awarded will be based on the applicant’s brief narrative describing how she/he intends to advance the cause of regenerative agriculture.
Some of the different awards include:
- Online subscription(s) to the Regen Ag Online courses
- Paid registration to one or more in-person Soil Health Academy - possibly including hotel, travel expenses and meals
Veteran Programs
This option is specifically for individuals that have already honorably separated from the military. They may already be farming or ranching but would like to transition their operation to one that is regenerative, or they may be working off the farm and would love nothing more than to become a regenerative farmer.
The Soil Health Academy hopes to support these veterans as their need or goal dictates and will develop each veteran's experience allowing flexibility in time, purpose and location.
What this looks like will vary greatly between veterans. Each program will be tailored to the need of that individual and therefore may take a little longer to implement. The better you can articulate what you're looking for the easier it will be for us to make it a reality. The SHA envisions, but is not limited to, the following:
- On farm training
- Online programs
- Internships
- Agribusiness opportunities
- Soil Health Academy
DoD SkillBridge Program
From the official DoD SkillBridge website: "The DoD SkillBridge program is an opportunity for service members to gain valuable civilian work experience during the last 180 days of service. For industry partners SkillBridge is an opportunity to access and leverage the world’s most highly trained and motivated workforce."
The program Battlefields to Fertile Fields is designed for middle to senior transitioning military members. The program is 12-16 weeks in length, and participants will receive training on regenerative agriculture, business planning, management, agriculture production practices, and daily operations.
Our goals:
- To support transitioning veterans as they enter the civilian workforce
- To help transitioning veterans learn about soil health and regenerative farming
- To provide employment opportunities to participating veterans
- To enable a pipeline for regenerative farmers to engage with transitioning service members interested in pursuing a career in agriculture
