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OF ALL the slings and arrows farmers have to endure, one of the worst is the frequent charge made by their ■■friends" and neighbors: ‘‘Why worry about saving the farmland of the northern Virginia Piedmont? The spread of the Washington metropolitan area is ine\ itable. And. besides. there's plenty of farmland left in Virginia, let alone Iowa and Kansas."
Mammoth agri-business is the answer, these people say. Bigger is better. Save the ‘“mega-farms" of the Midwest, but don't worry about the family farms, many several generations old, such as those in Rappahannock, Fauquier and Loudoun.
This newspaper has made it clear that we think the farmland of the northern Virginia Piedmont is worth saving. Granted it’s not being farmed as intensively as it once was, nor up to its full potential. Rappahannock used to export apples to England and the world. Fauquier was once the largest producer of orchard grass in the world. Loudoun was the nation’s breadbasket. Just last year, a Fauquier farmer got 198.01 bushels of corn per acre: the only competitors who surpassed him were from California and Texas. and irrigated their crops!
You just can't convince us this farmland isn't worth saving. It's not happening yet. but we think it's possible northern Virginia could be agarden for the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area. There's no sense in Washington. D. C. residents buying apples from the state of W ashington when they could be buying
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