Farm Credit Renews Its National Partnership With Farmer Veteran Coalition

Farm Credit announced renewed support for farmer veterans across the country through sponsorship of the national Homegrown By Heroes initiative, led by the Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC). Homegrown By Heroes is a national labeling program that allows farmers, ranchers, fishermen and other agricultural producers who have served or are still serving in any branch of the U.S. military the ability to use the program's logo on their agricultural products and business signage. This label enables consumers to select agricultural products that support our nation's farmer veterans.

Today's $200,000 donation marks Farm Credit's fourth consecutive year of sponsoring the Homegrown By Heroes initiative. The announcement was made at the third annual Farmer Veteran Stakeholders Conference, held at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

"Many veterans have turned to farming and ranching as a way to continue to serve our country after their military service is completed," said Gary Matteson, vice president of young, beginning and small farmer programs and outreach at the Farm Credit Council and chairman of the FVC board of directors. "Farm Credit commends these veterans for their commitment to agriculture and rural America, and we proudly sponsor the Homegrown By Heroes program because we recognize that consumers across the country want to do their part to support farmer veterans as well."

"The veterans in our network are getting a well-deserved boost from using the Homegrown By Heroes label on their product," said Michael O'Gorman, FVC executive director. "This continued support from Farm Credit will allow us to bring the label to a lot more veteran producers and raise public recognition of the label in the marketplace."

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture created the Homegrown By Heroes label as part of its Kentucky Proud marketing program before launching a national partnership with FVC in 2013 to expand the label beyond the state border. Since then, the initiative has grown to more than 550 participants in 48 states and Puerto Rico. Farm Credit's resources will be used to continue outreach to farmer veterans interested in participating in the Homegrown By Heroes program and to expand partnerships with state departments of agriculture seeking to promote use of the label in conjunction with their state's existing "Buy Local" marketing labels.