Jon Jackson, a former Army Ranger, is furthering his post-military mission of service through agriculture in Milledgeville, Georgia. He’s worked with USDA and his local community to create Comfort Farms, the nation’s first Acute Veterans Crisis Agriculture Center and “a healing farm for veterans.”
After years of service with the U.S. Army, Jackson returned home and like many veteran farmers, discovered he was happiest when working the land and nurturing the soil. Comfort Farms, which he started in 2016, is a therapeutic and training agricultural facility. He said “The first thing I did was call USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Georgia and have them look at our whole landscape. They gave me a lot of advice, based on my current objectives and long-term goals.”
Thanks to a tremendous amount of effort and dozens of volunteers, as well as some generous donations from private companies, the farm was soon producing fruits, vegetables, and high-quality pork.
USDA offers a variety of risk management, disaster, loan, and conservation programs to help agricultural producers build resiliency and weather ups and downs in the market. Visit farmers.gov to learn more.