Beef producer Thomas E. Graves of Orange was elected Dec. 5 to a fifth three-year term on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors.

Elections of officers and directors were held during the VFBF 2020 Annual Meeting of Voting Delegates.

As a board member, Graves will represent Farm Bureau producer members in Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, King George, Madison, Orange, Prince William, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties.

He is chairman of the VFBF Legislative Advisory Committee and vice chairman of the VFBF Forestry Advisory Committee. He also is a member of the VFBF Budget and Audit Committee and the VFBF board of directors Governance Committee. He is a charter director of the State Fair of Virginia Youth Development Board and serves on the oversight committee for The Meadow Event Park.

Graves served on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation AgPAC board of trustees for seven years and the VFBF AgPAC executive committee for two years. He served four years on the American Farm Bureau Federation Forestry Advisory Committee. He also worked with AFBF and VFBF to hold the first Farm Bureau-sponsored campaign school for citizens running for public office in Virginia.

He is a past president and past board member of Orange County Farm Bureau.

Graves also served four years on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. He previously served as chairman of the Dogwood Village of Orange County board and served on the boards of the Dogwood Village of Orange County Foundation and Dogwood Village of Orange County-Health Center Commission. He is a past president and past board member of the Orange County Fair Association.

He and his family operate a 1,500-acre beef cattle farm. Graves and his wife, Jenny, have two children and five grandchildren. He attends Macedonia Christian Church.

With 130,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to supporting Virginia’s agriculture industry. View more Annual Meeting news as it becomes available at vafb.com/convention.

Contact Pam Wiley, director of communications, at 804-291-6315.