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EVEN THE Governor of Virginia is a nevertiring champion of “progress”—read “development”—and of more and more “industry.” Virginia already has one of the best industries imaginable, in its agri-business economy, but that isn’t good enough for a sometime corporation lawyer who has sat in the highest councils of commerce and industry. There are people right in this area, which is one of the historically strongest agricultural sections in Virginia, who want to see us dump this for the uncertainties of widespread development, and “industry.” Nothing dirty or messy— oh no! The only kind of industry they want is “nice and clean,” providing a strong tax base but causing no problems! What about the industry we have—farming?
“THE EXPERIENCES of overdeveloped states in the North provide guidance to Virginians in the necessity for developing well-conceived State land use policies,” says the policy paper adopted by the Virginia Agriculture and Commerce Board. If anything, it’s a bland understatement.
Instead of trying to transform Rappahannock and other rural counties into something they aren’t, it strikes us that all of these busy “task forces” would do better if they tried to help strengthen what these counties already have, in green abundance.
After all, agriculture is “a major sector of Virginia’s economy.” Let’s help strengthen it, right here at home.D
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