THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605300006
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 60 lines
Virginia is for lovers. Virginia is even more for farmers. But the delights of the state's farms are less well-known than the state's tourist enticements. That may change somewhat, thanks in part to a slowly growing network of wholesale farmers' markets.
``VIRGINIA IS FOR L[O]VERS'' is the most-famous, most-imitated tourism-promotion slogan ever. Tourism is big in Virginia, accounting for nearly $10 billion in annual spending and roughly 163,000 jobs.
Yet agriculture's economic value to Virginia is 2 1/2 times greater than tourism's. Virginia agriculture generates $25 billion in total sales and employs 250,000 men and women.
Still, produce from Virginia farms is underrepresented in supermarkets. Indeed, Virginia farmers don't grow much produce, finding greater profit in tobacco, corn, soybeans, peanuts and wheat.
That wasn't so decades ago when small markets were the norm. Grocers bought direct from farms surrounding their villages, towns and cities.
Also, Princess Anne County (now the biggest chunk of populous Virginia Beach), Norfolk County (now the main portion of fast-growing Chesapeake) and Nansemond County (now most of Suffolk) were thriving truck-farming centers. Their farms put fresh food on not only South Hampton Roads tables but also many Northern tables.
Residential developments and shopping centers have wiped out most of the region''s truck farms. But miles and miles of Virginia are still being farmed.
Virginia farmers would be growing more fruits and vegetables if they were linked to the national and international marketing systems. Fortunately, more and more are being connected to the wider world through emerging wholesale farmers' markets.
Some neighboring states have long had wholesale farmers' markets. Not until Jerry Baliles was governor did the state move to help create such markets so that fruits and vegetables could be assembled in quantity for major grocery, institutional and specialty-shop buyers.
Now Virginia has three wholesale farmers' markets:
The Southwestern Virginia Farmers' Market, operated by Carroll County, opened in 1992. State investment in the market totaled $1.2 million. Growers sold more than $13 million in 1994 and 1995 through the Southwestern facility, and sales are expected to be higher this year.
The Eastern Shore of Virginia Farmers' Market, operated by the Eastern Shore Marketing Cooperative, opened in 1993. The Shore grows three-quarters or more of all vegetables produced in Virginia. State investment in the Shore facility totaled $2.4 million. Some 600,000 units of Shore produce passed through the market last year.
The Halifax wholesale farmers' market in Central Virginia, where state money was used to expand an existing facility.
Funding for two more markets - one in Southampton County, the other on the Northern Neck - is included in a bond package approved by the General Assembly earlier this year.
Corporate farming is the primary source of food for Americans and much of the globe. Family farms continue to disappear. Wholesale farmers' markets are boons to smaller farms. Virginia farmers are already benefiting from the wholesale markets in place. More will benefit in time. That will be good for Virginia. Good, too, for all Virginians. by CNB