This morning I walked down to the mailbox with my most recent National Agricultural Statistics survey report. As I walked, I carried with it a certain frustration with this seasonal task. If you are not prompt in completing this report, daily phone calls or personal visits will follow from the USDA. It seems that the… Continue reading A Trip To The Mailbox
My wife and I made the decision about a year ago that the best gift we could give our two young sons would be for her to leave her job at Virginia Tech and stay home with the boys. This decision has had an impact on our bottom line. We like great food, but we… Continue reading What is it with local foods?
Endless Summer Harvest was one of the stops during the most recent VALOR seminar. Owner and operator Mary Ellen Taylor treated the VALOR fellows to a tour of her hydroponic greenhouse operation, as well as a dinner fresh from her “fields” in Loudoun County. "Great chefs know that good food comes from farms.” – Mary… Continue reading Lettuce Take Another Look at Farming.
There is a widespread belief that it is us vs. them when it comes to the relationship between the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Agricultural Industry. I would submit that it doesn’t have to be that way. I recently had the opportunity along with the VALOR fellows to visit the EPA in… Continue reading U. S. Environmental Protection Agency vs. Agriculture… Inevitable? Maybe not.
Growing up in the western part of Virginia all you really see is beef cattle, poultry, some fruits and vegetables, and dairies with enough crop ground to support that dairy. I had always known that east of the Blue Ridge Mountains there were large amounts of row crops like corn, cotton, peanuts, and soy beans… Continue reading The size and scale will blow your mind
In 1952 the Commonwealth of Virginia created the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) for the main purpose of increasing commerce to the ports of Virginia. The Commonwealth realized that without improved promotion of shipped goods, improved navigable tidal waters, and sustainable relationships with established business; Virginia would fall behind in international trade. These supply chains play… Continue reading Shipping Done Right
From the Field is a bi-monthly column written by Mark Campbell, Farm Bureau Field Services Director for the Central District. He writes about Farm Bureau member benefits and County Farm Bureau activities. Sustainability is the hot buzz word that everyone talks about these days. Some people have different definitions of the word, but Wikipedia defines… Continue reading Reblogged: Sustainability, the New Buzz Word
Regardless of the particular sector of the industry in which we engage, each of us is faced with complex issues on a regular basis. Will additional funding improve the quality of youth education programs? Is regulation the only path to environmental protection? Should producers focus on developing local markets or pursue international opportunities? First, I… Continue reading How Do You Make Decisions About Complex Issues?
The VALOR fellows found themselves touring the Shenandoah Valley for seminar 3, which somehow seemed eerily familiar to me. On the afternoon of day 3 we found ourselves (again) in Rockingham County, and you can't talk about agriculture in Rockingham County without talking about poultry, and more specifically, turkeys. First up for the afternoon was… Continue reading Making lemonade when many lemons are suddenly about…
Unless I get long-winded, by the time you finish reading this post, our world will be inhabited by an additional 450 people, that's 20 more since you started reading this sentence. By the year 2050, experts predict that world population will rise to 9 billion people, with approximately 4 percent of that population living within… Continue reading Growing Agricultural Exports
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