This is the second episode in the multi-part series sponsored by Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC), a national non-profit organization mobilizing veterans to feed America and transition from military service to careers in agriculture.

Our guest this week is Stephen Carpenter. Stephen a graduate of Stanford Law School and the Deputy Director and Senior Staff Attorney for Farmers’ Legal Action Group (FLAG). At FLAG, Stephen focuses on disaster assistance, federal farm programs, sustainable agriculture, and of course, discrimination in agricultural lending.

In this episode, Stephen and I get into his upbringing on a dairy farm western Missouri and like many kids who grew up on a dairy, his fond memories of that time are mostly in retrospect. We talk about his father’s time as a Korean war veteran and how as a young adult during the farming crisis, Stephen recalls the difficulty of that part of his family’s farm. It was this experience that began to lay the groundwork for what is clearly a passion of Stephen’s – helping those in need.

We take a deeper dive into the USDA’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program – what classifies as discrimination, who are these 3rd party groups who will make the final determination on applications, how the applications should be written, what type of evidence you should present, how awardees will be taxed, and much much more.

Enjoy!

Farmers' Legal Action Group (FLAG) - www.flaginc.org

FVC Email Support - [email protected]

FVC Website w/ UDSA Discrimination Financial Assistance Program Additional information - https://farmvetco.org/dfap-22007/