On May 9 the Albemarle Board of Supervisors voted to include funding in their new budget for a rural areas support position in the county planning department. Support for this position was a significant win in the campaign to keep Albemarle’s open spaces open.
Albemarle’s agriculture sector has declined steadily in recent decades, even though it is cherished by many and promoted in Albemarle’s land use policies. Most of the decline has been due simply to the difficulty of making a profit with traditional agriculture. Typically, local farmers raise livestock and sell them at auctions, essentially as raw materials of food products. Prices paid for live animals often do not meet the costs of production. Others earn profits possibly in food processing, distribution and retail marketing.
The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club (on whose behalf I speak) believes that if agriculture is to survive and prosper, Albemarle County’s agricultural sector needs to be transformed, with a new focus on locally grown foods marketed to area residents. Why? First, many consumers want to eat foods they know are produced locally and by practices compatible with natural resource conservation. Second, local marketing allows farmers to add value by processing, distributing and retailing their products. Third, more local marketing can help protect the environment. Profitable farms are more likely to remain in open space. Local marketing lowers food distribution energy costs. Environmental stewardship by farmers can be a marketing plus.
So, why isn’t local marketing pervasive? Consumers must recognize added value in local, sustainably produced foods. Some products cannot be produced locally or may be available only seasonally. Farmers must learn many new skills and accept new financial risks. Still, food producing agriculture is essential to civilization, and we see local marketing as the best, if challenging, path to economic viability
of farms.
Recognizing the possibilities, the rural areas chapter of the Albemarle comprehensive plan, adopted in 2005, calls for creation of an “Agricultural/Forestal Support Program position” that among other things will educate farmers and help develop marketing strategies. This position wasn’t funded in the last budget. Funding for the rural areas support position was recommended in the 2007/2008 budget developed by the county executive. However, supervisors Boyd, Wyant and Dorrier sought a major reduction in the Albemarle property tax rate, jeopardizing funding for many recommended programs, including the direct marketing position. Eventually a compromise reduced tax rate was adopted but this new rate left the marketing position probably unfunded again.
At that point, the Sierra Club wrote to the supervisors proposing that the position be funded out of the Economic Development Opportunity Fund created earlier this year. We were able to enlist assistance in an e-mail campaign from members of EAT Local, an organization concerned with local production and consumption of healthful food. At their budget work session on May 9, supervisors Thomas, Rooker, Slutzky and Dorrier expressed a desire to fund this item, and by the end of the session, funding was provided from reserve funds.
Appointment of a county staff in this position should provide a concentrated effort aimed at developing local agricultural marketing. This person should also help assure that agriculture is promoted in a manner consistent with Albemarle’s commitments to protecting vital natural resources.
Albemarle County’s agricultural sector may be poised now to enter a more prosperous period based on a new focus on local marketing. This transition is hardly certain and won’t happen easily. We are certain, though, that in the path to creation of this position, voices of consumers and environmentalists were heard clearly as a local government reached an important decision regarding an agriculture program. We want more of this.
Tom Olivier is the conservation chair of The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club. He is a biologist and raises sheep with his wife, Wren, on their farm in southern Albemarle County.