Farm Bureau starts speaking up long before January

By Wayne F. Pryor,
VFBF President

As the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly begins, Farm Bureau’s wants and needs will be heard in Richmond. But our voice already has echoed across the state in the year leading up to this session, addressing issues of importance to our members and rural Virginia in general.

At our annual convention last November, I mentioned that many of our members have invested a great deal of time in reaching out to their elected representatives and to candidates for elected office.

Last summer and fall 175 county Farm Bureau leaders from 50 counties attended Virginia AgPAC interviews with political candidates. Of the 29 state senatorial candidates endorsed by Virginia AgPAC, 26 won election or re-election. AgPAC endorsed 82 candidates for the House of Delegates, and 79 were either elected or re-elected.

Forty-two of the 45 House of Delegates district seats were won by candidates who endorsed the Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Initiative, a pro-agriculture platform developed by Farm Bureau and other industry groups.

We’re hopeful that all that preparation will lead to a fruitful harvest from this General Assembly.

It certainly did last year. Our annual Legislative Day last January was well-attended, and Farm Bureau policy was approved on 32 issues out of the 36 we brought to the General Assembly. At our senatorial district meetings last month, we discussed a number of these topics with legislators. They include the need for $100 million in new state funding for agricultural best management practices; enacting a Virginia constitutional amendment to permanently reform eminent domain laws; continued state funding of farmland preservation programs; science-based regulations concerning animal husbandry; increased funding for renewable fuels research; and full funding for Virginia’s Agricultural Research and Extension Centers.

Farm Bureau has partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other agriculture and environmental groups to propose significant new funding for BMP programs. Most scientists and policymakers agree that we will not reach our mutual goal of reducing pollution reaching the bay without decreasing agricultural runoff. While Virginia has spent millions to improve aging urban sewage systems, comparatively little money has been dedicated up until now to help farmers and rural landowners do their part.

Reforming our state’s eminent domain laws is going to be a long haul. Some of the changes we’re seeking are to protect the property rights of landowners permanently by seeking a constitutional amendment to affirm that land can be condemned for legitimate public use only, not used as a shell game for private developers or businesses.

Economic growth continues to bring negative and positive change to our rural communities. Land prices are rising, and more and more homes are being built where we once had prosperous farms. Farm Bureau won a hard-fought battle to include state funding for a purchase of development rights program last winter. We hope the General Assembly will keep the proposed $3 million for each year of the next biennium. This funding will help landowners preserve working farms.

Wayne F. Pryor, a Goochland County beef and grain producer, is president of Virginia Farm Bureau.