6 minute read
Who let the farmer out?
Revamped Virginia Farm Link is a ‘one-stop shop’ for farmland transition, expansion and resources
BY NICOLE ZEMA
It’s a match! The online Virginia Farm Link has been updated to better connect beginning and expanding farmers with retiring farmland owners who want to keep their land in agricultural production.
Stefanie Taillon, senior assistant director of Virginia Farm Bureau Federation governmental relations, said the program started at Farm Bureau in the early 2000s as an Excel spreadsheet of available agricultural lands.
Now the program is housed in the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Farmland Preservation. The purpose of the partnership program is to keep Virginia’s prime agricultural working lands in production, and assist farmers who are in search of farm transition and succession planning resources.
“The Virginia Farm Link program is a resource designed to help folks looking to transition their land, who perhaps don’t have a son or daughter to pass the land on to,” Taillon explained. “We hope it’ll be a one-stop shop for all your farm transition needs.”
Profiles are created through the Virginia Farm Link database for landowners facing retirement, and farm seekers in search of land, equipment and experience. Farmers seeking land are matched with farmland owners in the database, according to needs outlined in their profiles.
The program also provides assistance with preparing business transition plans and facilitation of transfers; information on innovative farming methods and techniques; and research assistance for agricultural, financial and marketing needs.
“Access to land and capital are the top barriers to farming,” Taillon explained. “We want to make it easy and fair for everyone, so providing these opportunities is a goal for Farm Link.”
Jennifer Perkins, coordinator of the VDACS Office of Farmland Preservation, can help users navigate the site and build profiles.
“If you do not have a need to post land or look for farming opportunities, the Farm Link site also offers farm transition guidance and can help you get started with succession planning and having those conversations with your family,” Perkins said. “It’s never too early to begin.”
The program is free for participants. Costs are covered in part by funding from the Virginia agriculture license plate program. For more information, visit virginiafarmlink.org or @VAFarmLink on social media.
Focus on the road ahead
Distracted Driving Awareness Month is a timely reminder that inattentiveness while operating a vehicle can have perilous consequences.
BY ADAM CULLER
Every time drivers get behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, they have an obligation to make responsible choices to ensure the safety of those around them.
Still, many motorists fall short of this responsibility by choosing to drive distracted, a dangerous action that can come at a price.
“The choices you make—whether you’re on a cellphone or maybe you’re just inattentive adjusting your GPS system and all of those things—can lead to deadly consequences,” said John Saunders, director of highway safety for the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. “Not only on your part of losing your own life, but maybe causing the lives of others to be lost as well.”
Citing preliminary Virginia DMV data from 2021, Saunders noted over 20,000 accidents were attributed to distracted driving last year. Of those crashes, 11,627 injuries were reported and 116 resulted in fatalities.
In observation of Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April, motorists are being reminded to consider the results of their actions. Drive Smart Virginia—of which Virginia Farm Bureau is a founding member—is joining the cause by promoting its “Buckle Up, Phone Down” campaign.
The Drive Smart initiative encourages drivers to limit behavior that can divert their attention away from the road. These actions include handling a cellphone, interacting with passengers, adjusting audio or climate controls or operating a navigation system.
While these brief actions seem harmless, it only takes a split second for an accident to occur. Saunders explained this is especially true on Virginia’s rural roadways, which make up about 75% of all roads in the state.
Of the 967 fatalities that occurred on Virginia roadways in 2021, 546 happened on rural roads. The leading cause of these crashes was road departure—accidents in which drivers depart lanes unintentionally, and their vehicles are involved in side collisions, veer off the road or cross centerlines into oncoming traffic.
State Fair competitions offer a wide array of categories in which Virginians of all ages can enter.
BY KATHY DIXON
Traci Garland sometimes works “I’m a State Fair blue-ribbon winner” into conversations.
“It’s pretty awesome” to say those words, admits Garland, who used to visit the State Fair of Virginia and admire the winning competition entries but never thought she could participate since she lives in Richmond.
“One year, it dawned on me that I could,” shared Garland, who has won 10 ribbons since first competing in 2016. At the time, her daughter was 4 years old and enjoyed helping in their backyard garden and the kitchen. “I thought it might be fun to try canning with her.”
The duo made a green tomato and apple chutney that Garland entered in the open preserved foods category. She won a blue ribbon for it and has been “hooked ever since.” When Garland’s daughter was older, she entered the State Fair youth baking competition and won a red ribbon for her carrot cake.
State Fair arts and crafts, culinary and horticulture competitions are for anyone—artists, bakers, crafters, gardeners, plant experts, row crop farmers and more. There are categories for both adults and youth.
“The experience is so rewarding,” Garland said. “It’s amazing to go from picking the fruit with my family, to thinking up fun jam flavors, to entering in the competitions, and sometimes even winning.”
Each year, hundreds of Virginians enter the arts and crafts and horticulture competitions, and their entries are displayed during the fair. Adult entry fees are $1, and some categories come with small cash prizes in addition to bragging-right ribbons.
Competition guides will be posted on the fair’s website, StateFairVa.org, late spring. Entry deadlines and descriptions of the agriculture, Thomsen said.
“A lot of people aren’t exposed to crops and plants like those displayed in the horticulture tent,” shared Lynwood Broaddus, a Caroline County farmer and frequent horticulture competitor. “But people are really interested in where their food comes from.”
On Broaddus’ Spring Hill Farms, he and his son and brother grow wheat, rye and barley. For the past few years, they have entered samples of those crops in the horticulture competitions. He and his wife, Becky, also enter plants and vegetables from their backyard garden.
Last year, Becky used a butterfly bush in the design for a special cut flower category. Not only did she win the blue ribbon, she won a coveted rosette as well. “She is very proud of it,” Broaddus said.
And he obviously is too, because he hung it in the middle of the fireplace mantle in their living room.
categories are included in those guides.
No pre-requirements for entries
“Some people think you have to win at a county fair before you can compete at the state fair, but that’s a misnomer,” said Sarah Jane Thomsen, the fair’s manager of agriculture education and strategic programming partnerships. “Anyone can enter the arts and crafts, culinary and horticulture competitions if they meet the criteria.”
And participants in the competitions contribute to the fair’s mission of educating the public about agriculture and making connections between where their food is grown.
Horticulture entries help connect
Fair visitors who see shiny apples, giant tobacco leaves, hardy gourds, lush plants and colorful flowers in the horticulture tent are bound to learn more about Virginia
