Military vets-turned-farmers have a lifeline to rely on

BLYTHEWOOD – Abbie Kowalke knew the farmer’s life would be hard when she started Crazy Chic Heritage Farm with her husband.

It’s not for the faint of heart. 

“It’s been a rough ride,” Kowalke said. “It’s been up and down. But it’s rewarding when you get to see the things that you do … that no one else does.”

But as a veteran who served in the Air National Guard, this was not the first obstacle she had to overcome. And she knows how difficult it can be for other veteran-farmers who might be having trouble adjusting to no longer being in the military. 

In 2020, she joined the Veteran Farmer Coalition of South Carolina in hopes of supporting fellow vets. 

“It can be damaging because of some of the things that veterans go through,” Kowalke said. “We try to give a really good landing place for some veterans.”

The national organization, which provides opportunities for its veteran farmer community, has nearly 50,000 members. The S.C. chapter has more than 1,500 members. The national organization offers a specialized branding program just for veteran farmers that members can display. It’s called Homegrown by Heros.

The state chapter on March 2 announced a new blended logo, combining the Homegrown by Heros and Certified South Carolina labels. 

Matthew Rutter, former president of the Veteran Farmer Coalition of South Carolina, worked with the S.C. Department of Agriculture to create the upgraded branding. 

“Blending the Homegrown by Heroes label with the local label, I think, helps both entities with brand recognition, and it should grow it,” Rutter said. 

Homegrown by Heros tells the story of each veteran farmer to every customer, Kowalke said.

“I think it makes people feel good all the way around,” she said. “It says a lot about what kind of people we are because I think that not everybody in the military is the same, but there is a common thread.”

An important mission of the organization is to help people transition out of the military and figure out their situation, Rutter said. 

“You’re going from somebody telling you what to wear and where to be, and now you can go choose your own thing,” Rutter said. “And that’s kind of daunting for somebody that joined the army … trying to figure out what their next step looks like.”

Rutter, who owns Rutter’s Ranch in Anderson County with his wife, served more than 20 years in the Army and settled on his farm when he started missing the veteran camaraderie he had in service. 

That’s when they petitioned the national organization in 2019 to create the S.C. chapter. 

The organization provides a training program for veterans starting their farm journey. It also provides grants through the Fellowship Fund. 

“Anyone that’s a member of the Veteran Farmer Coalition, we’ll do whatever we can to help them,” Rutter said. 

After looking up the Fellowship Fund, Davian McKnight, a third-generation farmer who spent 10 years overseas in Afghanistan, joined the state chapter. 

Now, he is the president of the state chapter after being voted in earlier this month. 

His strategic vision for the organization is to find veterans who have yet to find farming. 

“There are 400,000 veterans in the state of South Carolina, but there are only about 1,500 members that are part of our charter right now,” McKnight said. “So my goal is to identify those individuals and bring them into the farming space.”

McKnight just might be able to pull that off: He’s a TikTok standout with more than 63,000 followers. 

Acquiring land to start a farm is one of the biggest problems these veterans face, McKnight said. He said the price of land has probably tripled since he bought his acreage in Hemingway, in Williamsburg County, in 2021. He blames housing development.

“When it comes to agriculture, old farmers can’t get out, and for new farmers, the barrier is too high to get in,” he said. “We’re literally going to develop ourselves out of a place to eat.”

Despite these obstacles, Kowalke believes veterans are better equipped to start a farm than others. 

“Military veterans would have an understanding of balancing multiple things at one time and prioritizing,” she said. “So that’s not a drawback. But it’s also stressful, and it’s a lot to handle.”

A veteran farmer’s life has its struggles, but seeing hard work come to fruition makes it all worth it, Kowalke said. 

“When people pull in and say, ‘Wow, it’s so beautiful,’ (I think), ‘Did you see the fence coming down or the trees that we got to pull out to burn?'” She said. “But yeah, when we can take a minute and look at it, it helps a lot.”