35 cents
VOL. 5/ISSUE 8
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2016
Veteran rep looks to PAWS next Congress and reform VA Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis is a Navy veteran, and a veteran congressman. With his third election behind him, DeSantis is heading into the upcoming Congress with high hopes for veterans. “This might be the only opportunity we’ve had in a generation to really reform the (Department of Veteran Affairs),” he told Veteran Voice in a recent telephone interview. However, DeSantis said the 115th Congress will have numerous issues facing it with an incoming presidential adminRon DeSantis istration promising a lot. He said veterans issues must get and stay at the forefront of President-elect Donald Trump’s mind. “My only fear is there’s going to be so much other stuff going on,” DeSantis said. He added, “You’re going to have all these things going on, I hope this is a front-burner issue.” DeSantis said in the coming Congress he’d like to see legislation debated and passed expanding the opportunities for veterans to seek care from private providers outside the Veterans Health Administration. “The ultimate goal is — the veteran who
See DESANTIS page 10
Photo by Phil Galdys Operation Iraqi Freedom combat veteran Brian Sales carefully agitates large bins of food waste, paper products and coffee grounds. The bins of waste are latent with growing hungry worms which convert the waste into highly enriched soil for Sublime Soil located in Palm City.
PLAYING IN THE DIRT
not just fun & games, but serious business Combat veteran grows victory garden Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
Brian Sales is fighting for his country by sowing the seeds of food independence. The Operation Iraqi Freedom combat veteran sees urban farming as his next national security mission. In January, he’s off to Wisconsin for a month-long urban farming boot camp with the renowned Will Allen, founder of Growing Power. “What I’m doing now with my career, it’s food security,” Sales said. “A lot of farmers are getting older, and somebody is going to have to take over.” Sales is the director of operations at Palm City’s Sublime Soil. Dean Lavallee, owner of Park Avenue BBQ Grille, started the not-forprofit about seven years ago with a mission to completely eliminate landfill waste from his seven restaurants.
Sublime Soil is involved in numerous recycling — what Sales and Lavallee call “upcycling” — projects, but the biggest is vermiculture. That’s a fancy word for worm farming. Sublime Soil collects food and paper waste from Park Avenue and feeds it to selected lumbricid species. They, in turn, produce what’s called “worm casting,” a natural fertilizer prized by horticulturists. “It’s all-natural Miracle Gro,” Sales said. Sublime Soil has given away the worm casting for a while, but is now also using it to grow crops that the not-for-profit will sell to Park Avenue and possibly others. That has always been part of the mission. Sales recently headed to a seminar led by Allen to learn more about small-space farming. “Will Allen is a pretty well-known urban farmer,” Sales said. “He built the farm at the White House.” Allen grew up in a sharecropping family, and went on to play basketball for the Uni-
See GARDEN page 10