2012 Virginia General Assembly convenes Jan. 11

This busiest time of year for the Governmental Relations team is upon us. The 2012 Virginia General Assembly will convene next Wednesday in Richmond, and we've been busy preparing to fight for the legislative priority issues that you, our producer members, deemed the most important.

A big thank you goes out to all of you who attended our Senatorial District meetings across the state, as well as our Field Services Directors who helped set up the meetings. We had a great turn out this year and were very successful educating our legislators about our issues.

We will be updating you on the statuses of these issues and other issues that affect agriculture as they arise in a few different ways. We will be updating the blog every Tuesday and Thursday with important articles, so please make sure you bookmark this page under your Favorites folder or subscribe by e-mail on the left of this page.

Virginia Farm Bureau joins U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance

The Virginia Farm Bureau recently joined the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, a newly formed alliance consisting of a wide range of prominent farmer- and rancher-led organizations and agricultural partners. This marks the first time agricultural groups at the national, regional and state levels have collaborated to lead the dialogue and answer Americans’ questions about how we raise our food – while being stewards of the environment, responsibly caring for our animals and maintaining strong businesses and communities.

USFRA recently held town hall meetings across the country to discuss concerns uncovered by surveys commissioned by USFRA, and answered questions from audience members and online participants.

The surveys found that Americans think about food production a lot, yet 72 percent of consumers say they know nothing or very little about farming or ranching. Many consumers think the United States is on the wrong track with regard to the way the nation produces food.