Group petitions board to pitch in
Its program would help farmers in Bedford County keep their land and make more profit.
By Beth Jones - Roanoke Times 6-26-06
Imagine opening the front door to find developers who want to give you a cool million for your 35-acre Bedford farm, which they plan to turn into the county's newest luxury subdivision.
That kind of money can be hard to resist.
Especially if you're a family farmer facing competition from factory farms and rising energy costs.
A committee of folks concerned about Bedford agribusiness will ask the county's board of supervisors to launch a program that would study ways to help farmers hold on to their land and find ways to make agriculture more profitable.
In other words, "do something to help existing operations hang on," said Walt Pankey, a senior loan officer for Farm Credit of the Virginias in Bedford.
That something would be called the Bedford County Agriculture Development Program. The idea is a program that would do things such as seeking out new markets for farmers and ways to expand the horse industry, promote farming careers to local students, apply for grants and guide the county on legislative issues that affect agriculture.
Roger Cheek, a board of supervisors member, thinks the program could lead to a study on Bedford County growing corn for ethanol.
"I see a future," he said.
Bill Nance, president of the Bedford County Farm Bureau and a cattle farmer, said it's rare for farmers to ask the county for help.
"We've really never done anything to help the agricultural community," agreed Cheek. "I think we need to show a little more interest."
The idea for the program took root last summer when the Farm Bureau, the Bedford Agriculture Council and Bedford Citizens for Land Preservation joined forces.
All three groups seek common outcomes, said Bedford extension agent Scott Baker.
"We keep saying we want to keep open land," said Cheek. "Farmers have to be farming to keep it."
While the program's advocates realize the amount of open space in the county isn't likely to increase, they can work to keep the area from losing more farms, said Sue Montgomery, the county's economic development director who has worked on the project.
That doesn't mean, however, that the program would be anti-development, she stressed.
"We see this as another important component of the economy of Bedford," she said.
Linda Wallace, the agriculture development director for Halifax County, has advised the Bedford committee members as they drafted their goals for their agriculture development program.
Agriculture development is relatively new to Virginia, Wallace said.
She could think of only three similar programs in the state. Her job was created in 1999.
Most county governments have industrial development departments, Wallace said, but farming has been ignored like a red-headed stepchild.
"No one was out there fighting for dollars for agriculture," she said.
The most significant benefit of her job, Wallace said, is that it provides a voice for farmers.
"A liaison, if you will, between the ag community and local leadership (as well as state and federal, too)," she wrote in an e-mail.
Montgomery's office recently got a head start on some agriculture development goals.
Weeks ago, they sent out surveys asking farmers and folks in agribusiness if they'd participate in a round table to network and discuss common ground.
The responses Montgomery received showed her that farmers have needs different than business folks'. Farmers largely didn't want to meet in May or June because that's when they cut hay, and because they don't work on a 9-to-5 schedule, they needed to meet at night when they'd normally be out of the fields.
But they do want to get together. They care about holding on to Bedford County farms.
"What I've found so far is a real willingness to pitch in and help," Montgomery said.
