As President Donald Trump addressed farmers at a national conference Monday Ohio Valley agriculture leaders said they are standing by his effort to renegotiate trade deals. But some leaders cautioned that costly tariffs on farm products need to end soon.
President Trump doubled down on his fight for better trade deals during his speech to American Farm Bureau Federation members at their convention in New Orleans.
“We’re turning all of that around with fair trade deals that put American farmers, ranchers and in fact put America first,” Trump said.
Farm Bureau leaders said the organization is behind the president but expressed concern that continued tariffs on American farmers are taking a toll.
“If we had our way, we’d get a great resolution, and we’d have it tomorrow,” Ohio Farm Bureau spokesman Joe Cornely said. “So we’re reminding the administration that we need these problems resolved as quickly as possible.”
U.S. soybean exports to China normally bring in $14 billion a year but have plunged because of the tariffs. Trump administration officials plan to continue negotiations with China in early February.
Credit Nicole Erwin / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Soybean farmer Jacob Goodman watches prices for his crop drop.
American Soybean Association President Davie Stephens, a Kentucky farmer, said soybean farmers also want a quick resolution to the trade dispute. But Stephens says the situation has also helped Ohio Valley farmers realize they were too invested in China.
“It’s opened up soybean farmers’ eyes and farmers’ eyes in general,” he said. “We put all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak.”
Stephens said he hopes for a trade agreement before the Trump administration’s deadline in March when tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods increase from 10 percent to 25 percent.
Can apples grow on an abandoned mine site? That’s a question the West Virginia National Guard is spending more than $5 million to find out.
West Virginia was given $30 million in 2016 to invest in economic development projects across the state. The money came from the 2015 omnibus federal spending bill passed by Congress. There was a catch, though—groups would have to build their projects on former Abandoned Mine Land sites.
The idea was partly to spur new jobs in coal country, but also to speed up reclamation of mine sites. Some of the funding went to develop industrial parks, and $5.3 million went to agricultural projects, includuing an apple orchard project in Nicholas County.
Apples on Abandoned Mine Sites
Sergeant Major Darrel Sears, with the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG), manages the project on an abandoned mine site in Muddlety, in Nicholas County.
Behind an electric fence, rows of young apple trees are growing over a hillside.
Credit Roxy Todd/ WVPB
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Young apple trees that were planted several years ago on the West Virginia National Guard’s apple orchard in Nicholas County
“Some of it needs a little bit of help in lime and fertilizer and balance for the pH, but honestly almost every soil in West Virginia does,” he said.
Sears said the majority of this property can be used to grow fruit trees. These 3,000 trees are expected to live about 30 years. They aren’t producing many apples yet, they’re only two years old. They’re also tiny, a type of dwarf apple tree that will need to be trellised.
The project is growing different varieties of apples, most of which are Golden Delicious, a variety of apple that was developed in West Virginia. They’re sweet, and Sears said that makes them great for more than just eating—the project has also attracted a major private investor, a producer of apple juice and apple cider vinegar.
“So, we already have a potential partner to develop further but it hasn’t been anything official,” he said. “If they don’t come somebody else will.”
If that type of private investment pans out, this orchard could eventually provide about 400 jobs, and $1.5 million in tax revenue for the state, according to an economic impact study West Virginia University conducted.
Sears and nine other employees work at this orchard now. By the end of next year, he said they’ll have planted 250,000 trees on this site.
Questions Abound
Not everyone is convinced this plan is the best scenario. West Virginia Department of Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt said he’d love to see the National Guard’s project succeed, but he has questions about their approach.
“Why did they choose juicing apples, when juicing apples are the lowest value of an apple that there is out there?” he said. “Why aren’t we going after table apples, and a processing plant to where we can cut them up to the sizes that our youth need in our schools?”
Newly planted apple rootstock at the orchard site in Muddlety, W.Va.
Using some of the apples for eating is still part of the WVNG’s plan, but they’re hoping that by bringing in a larger company, the project will have more long-term investment beyond the current grant cycle, which ends next year.
Another question Commissioner Leonhardt has is why is the National Guard investing in agriculture? Major General James A Hoyer, the man in charge of the WVNG, said their job is not only to deal with natural disasters, but also to help find ways to solve economic and environmental challenges.
He said that includes looking beyond coal for ways to use the land that’s been left behind by years of mining.
“I think our role, from a guard perspective, is to take that property and turn it into something for West Virginia’s future,” he said.
If the Soil Fits
But is a mine site really a suitable place to grow an apple orchard?
“It all depends on the kind of soil you’ve got and its productivity potential,” said Jeff Skousen, a professor of soil science at West Virginia University, and an expert in reclamation of mine sites. He estimates that there are about 500,000 to 600,000 acres of abandoned mine land sites in West Virginia.
Some have been reclaimed. Others have not.
“And I would guess that probably a fourth of that area might be suitable for farming,” said Skousen.
Most of this abandoned mine land is still owned by mine companies or private landowners, but it could be developed into a post mining industry, like growing apples, if the soil is free of contaminants, and if there are enough nutrients to support farming. Skousen helped the WVNG select the site for their Nicholas County orchard, and he tested the soil.
“These soils aren’t toxic; there’s nothing wrong with them,” he said. “They’re just fairly course … they don’t hold as much water and hold as many nutrients.”
Skousen advised the WVNG to add some potting soil to the dirt to give more nutrients and to help break up the tough clay. He said he’s hopeful the trees will continue to thrive and produce, but it will be a few more years till they’ll know for sure if they were successful.
Clay County Failure
An earlier apple tree project the WVNG was involved in was not successful. That site is located in Clay County, right along the Nicholas County line. Most, if not all, of the thousands of apple trees there have died. The ground appears dry, and there are pieces of coal shale in the dirt, nestled up against the dead trees.
Credit Roxy Todd/ WVPB
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Previous site of apple tree project in Clay County
This project was headed up by a non-profit called the Central Appalachia Empowerment Zone, and the West Virginia National Guard helped plant all the trees in 2015.
Hoyer with the WVNG said in the case of the Clay County project, the soil soil quality was adequate, rather the project lacked resources to manage the orchard after the trees were planted.
“The follow up on those trees is not like the follow up in the orchard that we have at Muddlety,” he said.
According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the site where these apples were planted was mined by Greendale Coal, which had its permits revoked in the late ’80s. The DEP said reclamation was later done on the soil, but there is an issue with acid mine drainage.
It’s not exactly clear if any of these environmental issues had anything to do with why the apple trees died. Connie Lupartus, executive director the Central Appalachia Empowerment Zone, said she was told by the DEP that the site would be appropriate to grow apples, and they did grow initially. Lupartus said they only received a little more than $20,000 for this pilot project, and if she had to do it over again, she would make sure she has workers in place to care for the trees once they were growing.
Jeff Skousen, the WVU soil scientist, said that, generally speaking, if the reclamation on a mine site wasn’t completed, then it’s probably not the ideal location to grow apple trees.
“So we do have to be careful about sites like that,” he added.
For multiple reasons, Skousen said, the second orchard location in Muddlety is probably better suited for growing apples. That site was last mined in 1969, and though there is still some reclamation needed on the property, he’s hopeful that the soil and water quality will be able to support an orchard.
Bringing in Outside Perspective
The challenges in the first pilot project in Clay County did help the WVNG realize they needed some help.
They consulted with some fruit researchers at the Appalachia Fruit Research station in Kerneysville, West Virginia.
The reserachers are working with the WVNG to help find the apple varieties that grow the best on the Muddlety site. They’re also helping them grow some other fruit on this site.
“In our stone fruits we have a trait we call super sweet nectarines and peaches that have tremendous flavor profiles,” said Chris Dardirck, a molecular biologist with the Appalachia Fruit Research Station.
They’re also working on finding a way to help the WVNG grow pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, and even a kiwi variety that was developed specifically for West Virginia.
Time Will Tell
Back up at the Muddlety site, Sergeant Sears said, in a generation from now, apples and other fruit trees could be one of the things covering these hillsides. He added he does think this project will be more successful than the Clay County project.
“And as far as them doing better here there than over there, it’s just a matter of testing to see,” Sears said. “I mean, you don’t know until you get them going, but they appear at this point [to be] doing quite well here.”
He said in about four years, we’ll know for sure. That’s when the 250,000 trees they are planting for this pilot project are expected to start producing apples.
Suzanna Johnson is an education officer with the Heart of Phoenix Equine Rescue in Camner, Kentucky. Johnson is looking after a pregnant horse she rescued recently.
“Be good,” she instructs the mare, named CC, and pats her belly.
CC is an elderly horse that has been pregnant for 18 of her 21 years. Now she is chowing down on grass, recovering from what Johnson described as her previous owner’s negligent care. Before CC was rescued her teeth were in such poor condition she could not chew and digest her food, leaving her in state of starvation.
“You know some counties define good horse care as, the horse has food and water,” Johnson explained. “West Virginia defines it as the horse has what it needs to stay healthy.”
Johnson said that was an important distinction for CC.
“In CC’s case, yes she had food and water, but it wasn’t food that she could make use of because her teeth were in too bad of shape and the food was not appropriate for her age.”
Each year the Animal Legal Defense Fund ranks states on the quality of animal welfare legislation. Ohio is in the middle of the pack, ranking 27th, and West Virginia is among the nation’s best, ranking 7th. For the last 11 years Kentucky has ranked last.
“Kentucky animal welfare laws are horrible,” Johnson said, adding that what she’s seen during her work with the Heart of Phoenix in the Ohio Valley fits with the fund’s rankings.
“The difference between West Virginia and Kentucky and Ohio is that West Virginia animal control officers and legal authorities have a lot more control over their cases than they do in Kentucky and Ohio,” she said.
Credit Courtesy Suzanna Johnson
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CC the horse before and after her rescue. The top image shows the horse’s malnourished condition.
According to the National Link Coalition, which brings together experts in domestic violence and abuse prevention, animal abuse issues can have broader implications. The Coalition reports that families under investigation for child abuse are highly likely to also have an incidence of animal abuse in the household.
Animal rights advocates say that the Ohio Valley’s varying laws on the treatment of animals can make it more difficult to identify those who abuse them, putting both pets and people at risk.
“Unintended Consequences”
Veterinarians say Kentucky is the only state that prohibits them from reporting animal abuse to law enforcement. Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association’s Jim Weber said that ban came about as an accident.
Often veterinarians will have sensitive information about people in their records along with information about animals. For instance, Weber said, if a client has a health condition that could affect the animal’s treatment or mode of therapy, that may be recorded in the veterinary file.
“In domestic cases of course we have the client’s address, name and phone number listed and there have been instances where ex-spouses would try and find out where they were living through veterinarian records,” Weber said.
Reported domestic abuse cases sparked the group to seek the stronger privacy protections.
“We sponsored legislation that would make the records confidential,” Weber said. “Unfortunately, it was a case of unintended consequences, where we failed to have an exemption being able to report animal abuse.”
Weber said his group has tried for almost 10 years to change the statute to allow for reporting of animal abuse.
“The only two ways that a veterinarian can provide information about a patient or a client is by a court order or by consent of the owner of the animal,” he said.
Weber said groups like the Kentucky Farm Bureau have prevented the legislation from making it to the floor for a vote.
Kentucky Farm Bureau First Vice President Eddie Melton said in an email that “no segment of society has more concern for the well-being of livestock than the producer.”
Melton did not explain why the Farm Bureau would oppose efforts to remove the statute that prohibits veterinarians from reporting animal abuse.
In a March, 2017, report the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found that in the Farm Bureau’s legislative report from 2016 the bureau stated that it had “worked with members of the General Assembly” to fight repeal of the provision.
Abuse Connections
Animal welfare officials said the inability to report criminal abuse on animals could have more far reaching effects.
“Animal abuse and domestic violence and child abuse go hand in hand,” according to Ozzie Gibson, President of the Kentucky Animal Control Advisory Board. He said the connection between the offenses is strong.
“They’ll start on the animal then they work their way to the kid, then the wife, or vice versa,” he said.
That’s why the FBI began tracking animal abuse cases in 2016. But Kentucky’s ban hinders the FBI’s ability to track those incidents.
“Increased participation in the collection of animal cruelty offenses will allow the FBI UCR [Uniform Crime Reporting] Program to provide additional information and trends on a national level,” FBI Spokesperson Steve Fischer said in an emailed statement. He said the FBI crime reporting system requires, at a minimum, five years of data until trends can be established.
Ozzie Gibson said it’s an area that needs attention.
“There’s going to be a class taught with Louisville Metro police officers next year in conjunction with our animal control officers on what to look for,” Gibson said.
Horse Sense
A lack of funding and absence of state regulation leave many animal control offices without resources to train officers on important indicators of neglect or abuse. Gibson said free online training videos should be available later this year for the first time for Kentucky officers through the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
This is where nonprofit groups such as Heart of Phoenix would also like to help by offering free horse care training to officers throughout the Ohio Valley.
“Just over a year ago I was thrown into becoming the humane officer for my county as well as the director of animal control,” Elizabeth Keough said. She is now Director of Animal Control in Harrison County, West Virginia. “I had never learned anything about horses or livestock because we didn’t deal with them as animal control.”
Keough was first introduced to the animal rescue when she was tasked with finding new homes for 30 abused horses. She said one of the most beneficial skills offered through her training with Heart of Phoenix was being taught how to recognize abuse.
“Horses are a little different because there are more factors that go into why a horse is skinny,” she said. “You know mostly with a dog, it is because they aren’t being fed or they have parasites.”
But with horses, neglect or abuse could take other forms, such as moldy hay, inappropriate feeding, or bad teeth.
“So understanding all of those factors has really helped me perform my job better,” she said.
Credit Courtesy Suzanna Johnson
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CC and her foal, both healthy in their new home.
CC’s Recovery
Suzanna Johnson said if Kentucky and Ohio would support training accreditation like West Virginia has then animals like CC would have a better chance at recovery.
Johnson said that she remembered that when the veterinarian first saw CC in her neglected condition, she said it would “be a miracle if she and this baby live through the birth.”
Since our interview with Johnson, she was happy to report that CC gave birth to a healthy foal, named Suzy Q. Both have been adopted and found news homes.
West Virginia has been awarded a $400,000 federal grant to provide agriculture training for military veterans.
The state Department of Agriculture says in a news release the grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs aims to improve veterans’ health.
The statement says the Hershel “Woody” Williams VA Medical Center in Huntington will train participants to pursue agricultural vocations while addressing their behavioral and mental health needs.
Department of Agriculture staff will provide production, business and market planning for the program.
West Virginia Veterans and Warriors to Agriculture program coordinator James McCormick says he wants the state to take the lead on agricultural initiatives for veterans.
LaRue County, Kentucky, dairy farmer Gary Rock sits in his milking parlor, overlooking what is left of his 95 cow operation.
“Three hundred years of history is something that a lot of people in our country cannot even talk about,” Rock said.
That’s how long the farm has been in his family. While the land has turned out tobacco, soybeans and other crops over the years, since 1980 dairy has nourished the family in and out of tragedy.
“In 2013, we had an F2 tornado that totally destroyed all the facilities here except the one we are sitting in, which is the milk parlor itself,” Rock said. If that had been lost, he said, he would not have rebuilt.
Credit Nicole Erwin / Ohio Valley Resource
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Ohio Valley Resource
Despite losing his legs, Rock manages the centuries-old family farm.
“I told myself, I’m not going to force this to happen. If a brick wall occurs, I’m going to end it.”
Instead, things moved forward with help from his community.
“Before the tornado, we had a freestyle barn. It was low, it was not well-ventilated. After the tornado, we put in a pack barn which eliminated 90 percent of the health problems I had with cattle.”
Rock said the changes ended up helping his operation significantly. But within weeks of the farm’s return to production another tragedy hit. Rock lost his legs in a tractor accident. Still, the dairy provided, and this time with more than an income.
“It enabled me to find life again in a profession that I already knew,” he said. “So, that was a driving force for me.”
Now, the farm looks to weather its greatest storm yet: a disastrous drop in revenue.
“To give you an illustration, the same farm on the same number of cows is selling a $170,000 less of product in value,” Rock explained. “So, try to comprehend having to cut your pay scale in half and see what you’ve got to do to survive.”
This isn’t a Rock family problem, this is a dairy industry problem. Prices have plummeted in a market flooded with supply from foreign producers and larger operations squeezing out small farmers. The crisis has dairy farmers rethinking the U.S. market system and looking to other countries as models for a solution.
In the Ohio Valley the effects have come swiftly. In February, more than a hundred producers across Kentucky, Ohio and five other states learned that Dean Foods, a major buyer, would cancel contracts. Another processor, Prairie Farms, will close its fluid milk processing plant in west Kentucky in June.
“It looks to me that this will be the last month-and-a-half of milking that I’ll do,” Rock said. “This is the brick wall I never faced.”
Facing Bankruptcy
The National Family Farm Coalition says the average price of milk is around 30 percent below the cost of production. Things are so bad that dairy producers that do have contracts report that co-ops are attaching suicide prevention information with their checks.
Farm Aid Communication Director Jennifer Fahy said the tough times remind her of the 1980 farm crisis, when as many as 2,100 farms would close in a week.
Credit Nicole Erwin / Ohio Valley Resource
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Ohio Valley Resource
Rock’s herd is among the small farms squeezed by the dairy crisis.
“We are hearing from farmers who are being referred by organizations that are usually referrals for us,” she said. “Over the years since the farm crisis the network of support for farmers has been just chipped away.”
Fahy explained that they’ve seen net farm income take a 50 percent drop and dairy is getting hit the hardest.
“Sometimes the best-case scenario is helping a farmer to navigate declaring bankruptcy and getting out before it’s even worse, unfortunately,” Fahy said.
The U.S. open market system is pushing milk production to larger farms. In 1987 half of all dairy cows were on farms with 80 or fewer cows, similar in size to Gary Rock’s operation. By 2012, that midpoint herd size was 900 cows.
Blame Canada!
International trade issues are magnifying problems for the small farms left. International Dairy Foods Association President Michael Dykes blames Canada for violating trade laws.
Dykes claimed that some of Canada’s products are being “dumped” at unfair prices due to Canada’s system of price controls, known as “Class 7,” implemented last year.
Dykes said this all stems from an increased demand in butter. Instead of importing to meet their additional butter needs, Canada raised the milk quotas that Canadian farmers can produce.
“They increased it almost 6 percent, whereas the U.S. is increasing at about one-and-a-half percent per year,” he said.
As Canada upped its quota for domestically-produced milk to make more butter, it was left with an excess supply of other products, such as skim milk powders, for which there was lower demand.
“Now you have the Canadians coming in, they are selling skim milk powders on the ground in Mexico at three-cents-a-pound cheaper than we can from the U.S. to Mexico,” Dykes said.
Dykes said the Canadian policy lowers prices on milk ingredients like skim milk powders and encourages substitution of domestic Canadian dairy in place of products they might import from the U.S.
Credit Alexandra Kanik / Ohio Valley Resource
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Ohio Valley Resource
“So we are in a situation where we have more milk right now than we have demand and that also says trade becomes extremely important,” Dykes said.
He wants Canada to open its market to more U.S. dairy. He’d like to see NAFTA renegotiated or for the U.S. to rejoin the Trans Pacific Partnership. That agreement allowed a small percentage of U.S. imports into Canada before President Trump decided to end it.
In April, 68 members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer regarding NAFTA negotiations. The members of Congress urged an end to Canada’s pricing program and dairy tariffs, which impose a duty of nearly 300 percent.
Be Like Canada?
But the view from Canada is different. Dairy Farms of Ontario CEO Graham Lloyd said Canada’s pricing schemes are targeted at the domestic market.
“The fear or concerns that the U.S. seem to have with Class 7 is that we are going to be competitive in the world market,” Lloyd said. “But what needs to be understood is we actually don’t issue milk production for export purposes.”
Beyond just defending the Canadian system, Lloyd recommends that the U.S. should give it a try.
“From a Canadian perspective there is also a lot of sympathy for U.S. farmers,” he said. Lloyd said Canadian farmers once had the same struggles U.S. dairy farmers face now, before the country moved to its quota-based system.
“Farmers didn’t know where their markets were, they were having direct deals with processors,” he said. “Milk was getting dumped, there were no production controls and farmers were going bankrupt because they had no certainty of any market.”
Lloyd said that was all fixed by a supply management system based on three tiers: production control, pricing, and import control. Now, prices are constant and stable allowing processors greater predictability, albeit at lower margins.
“That allows for greater planning for them and that’s where you can maintain higher returns,” Lloyd said.
Credit Nicole Erwin / Ohio Valley Resource
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Ohio Valley Resource
A tornado spared only this milking parlor on Rock’s farm.
The idea has appeal among some farm advocates in the U.S. who argue that emulating the Canadians holds more promise that blaming them.
“Dismantling a system that is working in Canada so that they are more available to soak up our excess product … would not fix what is wrong here,” said Patty Lovera, policy director for the left-leaning advocacy group Food & Water Watch, which has worked to protect smaller farms.
Food & Water Watch warns that the small to midsize operations are being “squeezed out by the consolidation of industrial mega-dairies that now dominate milk production.”
Lovera cautioned against a “race to the bottom” result if the U.S. simply insists that Canada eliminate its own price and production controls.
“It would take other farmers who are doing well down to where farmers are here,” she said. “Which is what we get a lot of in our trade negotiations.”
In April, the same month that some lawmakers were urging a “get tough” approach to trade talks with Canada, a group of small farm advocates sent a letter of their ownto Congressional leaders and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. In it, the National Family Farm Coalition, along with more than 50 family farm, labor and consumer organizations urged immediate action on the dairy crisis by adopting a system like Canada’s.
The groups said the best changes could come by implementing proposals suggested in the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2011, introduced by Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey.
Wisconsin organic dairy farmer Jim Goodman heads the National Family Farm Coalition. He said a supply management system has worked for Canada for more than 50 years and it will work in the U.S.
“Because the government doesn’t run it,” Goodman said. “They don’t have to be worried about providing subsidies for producers when prices get low because of all we’re supplied because that doesn’t happen.”
“We’ve had a number of people that, I think, would say the industry has done very well,” he said. “The evidence of that is that we’re producing more milk than ever before. We’re selling it at very reasonable prices to consumers both domestically and abroad.”
Those who tend to say the industry is doing well typically have much larger farms. At one time, Stephenson said, the U.S. had 6 million dairy farms. Today, there are fewer than 40,000.
“We’ve had a lot of discussion about how big should farms be, what right do they have to become a certain size,” Stephenson said.
“I’ve also heard a number of times that ‘bigger is better,’ and I don’t believe that at all,” he said. “What I think we see is that better is better. And if you are a better cow manager and a better people manager and a better financial manager, then you have better financial outcomes.”
According to the USDA cost is a driving force behind structural change. The largest farms earn substantially higher net returns and they have strong incentives to expand.
Slim Choices
National Family Farm Coalition advocates argue that Congress has a duty to protect family farms, and they point to law that states the “clear Congressional support for the continued existence of family farmers, including dairy operations.”
Back in LaRue County, Gary Rock said he likes Canada’s system but he doesn’t know if the rest of America would feel the same.
“You have to realize that our choices are very slim at this point,” he said, adding that the outcome would have effects far beyond farms like his. “What small dairymen are facing, it’s what we once knew as rural America,” Rock said, “trying to survive in an industry that is continually telling you, you have to become larger to survive.”
This story was produced by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture as part of a collaboration among the agency, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Inside Appalachia.
Iraq War veteran Jeremy Ray was looking for a hobby to help fill his time. What he found was a way to heal his wounds. Ray is the proud owner of Gauley River Maple, and this year is his first season as a maple producer. He heard about maple syrup through the West Virginia Department of Agriculture’s Veterans and Warriors to Agriculture Program, aimed at retraining veterans for careers in agriculture.
He took one maple syrup producer’s class, taught in part by a seasoned maple producer, named Brandon Daniels, and was hooked.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about anything,” Ray said.
You couldn’t find anyone more surprised about this venture than Ray himself. The 43-year-old grew up on this land but joined the Army National Guard right out of high school. He was looking for adventure, but then came the war in Iraq and he was deployed oversees.
“The day I was deployed was the day my oldest son was born,” he said. “I was with him for 24 hours, and then I wasn’t back until he was 17 months old.”
Ray doesn’t talk much about what happened in Iraq and the things he saw — only that the experience changed him.
He worked for 14 years as a Nicholas County sheriff’s deputy, all the while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. He managed the depression, flashbacks and anger. But in 2011, his boss called him in the office and told him to hand in his badge. When he went home to tell his wife, she too had had enough and walked out with their two sons.
“I lost everything I ever worked for on November 11, 2011 — Veterans Day of all days,” he said.
It took years of intense therapy and a lot of self-reflection, but he and his family reunited. Now on medical disability, Ray said he’s looking for a new normal. That’s where maple syrup comes in.
“I’m a disabled vet. I really needed something to take up my time. I needed to get my mind busy on something, and I also wanted to find something where my kids could help and enjoy so we could get some more time together,” he said.
Credit W.Va. Department of Agriculture
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W.Va. maple camp, where students learned the basics of maple in the field.
His new workplace is far from the office atmosphere that triggered his anxieties. Outside with his maple trees, there’s a sense of peace.
“I’m by myself in the woods. It’s very relaxing,” he said.
West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt, a veteran himself, said Ray’s story is not uncommon.
“When you think about what the unseen wounds of war do to our veterans, and what agriculture can do to help them heal, veterans with that affliction don’t want to be in an office,” Leonhardt said. “They don’t want to have windows and doors and be around a lot of people. They want to be outdoors. That’s why maple syrup is ideal therapy.”
Credit Adobe Stock
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Bucket collecting maple water
Ray is a maple novice, but he said he sees growth potential in this industry. He said he hopes more people will consider becoming maple producers here in West Virginia. “Nobody around here knows about [maple farming] but everyone around here could do it if they wanted to,” Ray said.
“In West Virginia, there’s untapped potential. If a crazy, disabled vet can do it, anybody can.”
Including Ray’s six-year-old son Jackson, who tags along with his dad every chance he gets. Ray said one day, Gauley River Maple will belong to Jackson and his older brother, a legacy of love born from the wounds of war.
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The West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers Association is expecting a better season this year than last. The goal is to top 10,000 gallons of syrup for sale. The average cost for a gallon of West Virginia maple is $60. But what you’re getting is pure, maple syrup, no additives or flavoring. Producers, like Ray, say it’s well worth the price.
This Saturday is “Mountain State Maple Day” in West Virginia. Sugar shacks and maple operations around the state will open their doors to the public. Fifteen locations across the state are included in an interactive map.
