The Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund reached a milestone by securing more than 100 conservation easements for working farm and forest land.
Through matching funds that support local purchase of development rights programs, the farmland preservation program empowers localities to limit development on the farm and forest land that each community has deemed a priority for conservation.
Jimmy Messick, a Fauquier County farmer and owner of Messick’s Farm Market, has enrolled 700 acres of farmland in the program. His farm was where Gov. Ralph Northam announced the achievement and issued a proclamation commemorating the milestone.
Virginia’s largest agricultural advocacy group has mixed feelings about Gov. Ralph Northam’s recently released restoration plan for Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay.
Farmers are invited to submit nominations for the 
Virginia farmers are among those who stand to benefit from a second round of federal aid designed to offset income losses from foreign trade disputes.
Two outstanding Virginians earned statewide accolades July 27 during the 
Nestled in the rolling hills and timberland of the southern Piedmont area of Virginia, Locust Level Farm is in a part of the state where, historically, fields of two to fifteen acres produced tobacco, supplemented by row crops. Michael McDowell is the fourth generation to practice stewardship on this land—designated a Virginia “century” farm—but he has taken some decidedly different directions from those of the past.
Industrial hemp has been one of the most exciting and talked-about crops in Virginia this past year. The inclusion of hemp in the 2018 farm bill had many people — both inside and outside the agriculture sector – racing to figure out the potential market for this agricultural product. The March 2019 passage of hemp legislation in Virginia only added to this fervor.
Plows and Politics 