Degrees in agriculture—as well as mining, teaching, medicine, physics and chemistry—are among the most desirable in the current job market, according to a recently released report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

Over the next decade, U.S. farmers are expected to provide food and grains to meet increasing global demand.

The booming local foods movement has gone even more local in Bedford County. Farmers and the county economic development office have begun using their own “Bedford Grown” logo to promote foods and farm products with a connection to the community between Lynchburg and Roanoke.

A study by the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association found the annual economic impact of Virginia’s poultry industry to be more than $8 billion.

Virginians will be able to feed their families a Thanksgiving meal for a little more than $4.72 per person this year, according to an informal price survey conducted by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

U.S. farm production expenditures reached a record-high $318.7 billion in 2011, a 10.2 percent increase over 2010, according to the Farm Production Expenditures 2011 summary released in August by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Virginia’s horse industry has an annual economic impact of $1.2 billion, according to study findings announced March 17 by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Virginians will be able to feed their families a Thanksgiving meal for less than $4.35 per person this year, according to an informal price survey conducted by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.