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compete with subdivisions and shopping centers," Chandler said. “And it's equally difficult to farm if you have no one to do the farming. That's what we’re seeing in Southside Virginia.”
The rational for protecting the agricultural industry is evident: in 1987, farming contributed in excess of $19 billion to Virginia’s economy while one in every four working Virginians was employed in some aspect of farming, forestry or food production. “So what is agriculture?" Chandler asked. “Agriculture is big business."
As reasons for preserving farmland, he cited:
• prevention of urban sprawl and control of public costs, noting the “diseconomy of building the infrastructure to serve scattered subdivision development.”
• maintenance of regional food supplies.
• energy conservation through reduced transportation costs for moving agricultural products to market.
• environmental protection that comes with limiting residential and commercial development in sensitive headwater regions, wildlife habitat, and flood plains.
• the benefits to air and water quality through open space maintenance.
• continuance of the rural life style valued by Virginians and important to tourism, “one of those clean industries we all want."
As a strategy for preserving farmland, “multiple preservation techniques seem to work best,” Chandler said.
These can be (1) land use regulations, with agricultural zoning the
most frequently employed tool, (2) tax incentives, including use value assessments and tax abatement programs, (3) government acquisition (Chandler reported that King County. Washington, passed a $50 million bond referendum to purchase
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