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The Green Thumb Program, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The Green Thumb program was a prominent national feature of the rural “war on poverty” beginning in early 1966. A public works outdoor beautification program to employ low income older workers. It was modeled on the 1930s era Civilian Conservation Corps, and funded under contract to the National Farmers’ Union by the U.S. Labor Department. By the 1980s, when it was eclipsed by an experimental computer-based video text information delivery system for farmers of the same name Green Thumb had largely disappeared from public view. Today, a Google search with the phrase “Green Thumb program” turns up dozens of references …