Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 2 · column 1 of 3 · from the scan, no model involved
Saving farmland
STILL ANOTHER planning report has been released in Virginia which tends to indicate that this newspaper’s constant harping about the need to protect Virginia farmland—such as that found in Rappahannock County, and its neighbors—is something more than an idle alarum.
A report prepared by the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission, but dealing with a growing statewide concern, calls upon the Virginia General Assembly to consider what some persons might regard as drastic measures to halt the rapid depletion of Virginia’s prime agricultural acreage. These recommended moves include state ownership of farmlands, with leasing back to for agricultural purposes; the strengthening of local planning and zoning authority, with the ability to enact large lot sizes in prime agricultural areas, and make them stick; and to direct location of highways, public facilities, office complexes, shopping centers and subdivisions away from prime agricultural land.
If we don’t, the report warns-»-and the Richmond Commission is by no means alone in its beliefthen Virginia will find itself with “an inadequate supply of agricultural land available in the year 2000 to meet public demands for foodstuffs...’’ A report compiled by the Piedmont Environmental Council about a year ago, dealing with the specific area which embraces Rappahannock, reached many of the same conclusions. In short, if something isn’t done, and soon, to halt the spread of suburban development out into the countryside, all of us are going to be in trouble, in the most basic way imaginable. We won’t have enough food to eat.
95.9%