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Governor John Dalton’s designation of November 19 through 25 as Virginia Agricultural Week corresponds with our traditional harvest festival of Thanksgiving. In his certificate of recognition for agricultural week, Dalton states: “Since the first settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607, agriculture has shaped the economy and the thinking of the Commonwealth. Today, modernized and mechanized, it is still a key factor in Virginia’s thought and action."
As “a key factor” in Virginia, agriculture deserves more help than it's getting to combat the pressures of urbanizing frontiers. Localities like Rappahannock want to do something to halt the creeping urban sprawl but local government is powerless to implement the will of the people in the face Virginia’s Dillon Rule that keeps all authority not specifically granted to counties firmly in the hands of the state. Local efforts to control and channel—not stop—growth are frustrated repeatedly by court decisions.
If Gov. Dalton, the General Assembly and other officials in state government are serious about all the fine sounding proclamations on saving farm land that come out of Richmond, then it's time to start doing more than paying lip service. It’s time to start thinking along the line of state government in Oregon where a mandate came down to localities to take steps to preserve prime agricultural land.
If we don’t start soon, there won’t be a harvest in Virginia for our children to celebrate at Thanksgiving.
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