For our last seminar of VALOR Cohort VI, we visited Central Virginia with Graves Mountain Lodge as our hub for the trip. I hadn’t visited Graves Mountain Lodge since high school when I participated in the VICE cooperative conference, which they still host each year. It was interesting to think about how things have changed since then, but also how much things remain the same. I met Dr. Dixie Dalton at that conference, who recruited me to AgEcon at Virginia Tech! The Graves family is still providing lodging and delicious home cooking at their lodge in Syria, VA. You must try the apple butter and save room for dessert!
The theme that comes to mind regarding this seminar is the tight knit community of agriculture and agribusiness, and the commitment of families to lead their businesses through the generations. Lynn Graves chatted with us about the history of his family’s farm and business, and its evolution over time, starting with his family’s ancestors in Jamestown in the 1700s. Madison Wood is also a multigenerational business that has grown to be the world’s largest facility for treating wood. Albemarle Ciderworks is focused on family involvement, with siblings carrying on the family tradition of high-quality cider production. Michael Shaps of Virginia Wineworks Extended found an innovative way to spread his overhead by custom crushing grapes for smaller vineyards to help them provide high quality wines for their customers without investing in the infrastructure.
It was interesting listening to Jim Saunders of Saunders Brothers Nursery talk about the history of his family’s business and its evolution and expansion through four generations. Their emphasis on growing fruits and plants for independent garden centers and focusing on boxwoods for landscaping have served them well. Several of the employees in the business have been with them for 26 years and much of the migrant labor returns year after year! He emphasized the importance of treating his employees well and working on efficiency in the business. Also, he encourages younger family members to work away from the business for several years before coming back. Even family members are required to apply for positions just like non-family members to ensure fairness in business practices.
We visited the George Washington Carver Agricultural Research Center in Rapidan to learn about how efforts are being made to support minority and veteran farmers and encourage success in agriculture. So many projects are ongoing to support education and food security in the community. The commercial kitchen is an innovative facility which is used to minimize food waste by processing it, donating to food pantries and offering small processors a place to prepare bulk food safely.
Throughout my VALOR experience I’ve noticed how industry connections, community, family, hard work, and commitment are common threads across Virginia’s, Kentucky’s, and Kenya’s leaders in the agriculture industry.
valeadersor.com 