Farmers are watching a bill in the Virginia General Assembly that stands to benefit not only them but also Virginians statewide who are in need of food.

Except for ethanol subsidies, the national news media didn’t focus on farm issues in the run-up to the Iowa caucus on Feb. 1. The American Farm Bureau Federation has created a website for anyone who wants to follow what presidential candidates are saying to attract the farm vote.

Since Virginia launched its Resource Management Plan program in July 2014, 278 plans have been developed for farms in the commonwealth’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Virginia farmers are asserting current state oversight of the use of biosolids as a source of nutrients for farmland is sufficient, though the practice merits an impartial study.

In the past 18 months, Virginia has seen a drop in the number of livestock animals killed by coyotes on Virginia farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services division.

Six Virginia localities are receiving fiscal 2016 grants to place working farmland under permanent conservation easements.

Virginia Farm Bureau Federation volunteer leaders will speak with state legislators about issues of interest to the commonwealth’s farmers during the organization’s annual Legislative Day on Jan. 28. 

A wave of supporters filed friend-of-the-court briefs on Dec. 9, joining the American Farm Bureau Federation in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments on the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to micromanage state land-use and development decisions under the guise of the Chesapeake Bay water quality "blueprint."

Any legislation to identify foods that contain genetically modified organisms belongs in Washington, not Richmond, say Farm Bureau members across Virginia.

Farmers and ranchers are urging the U.S. Senate to follow the House of Representatives’ lead and repeal country-of-origin labeling, or COOL, mandates for beef, pork and chicken.