Let's look more closely at the statistics in the 2015 State Agriculture Overview. The data could be viewed as just dull, dry numbers, or you can look at a few statistics and discover they tell a story.
In 2015, Virginia had 8,382,993 people according to the Bureau of Census (You remember how to use QuickFacts, right?) QuickFacts also shows Virginia has slightly over 3 million households in Virginia.
On the 2015 State Agriculture Overview, scroll down to the bottom right to find Other State Highlights, 2012 , and find under it "Principal operators by primary occupation."
Compare the number of farm operations where farming was the primary job vs. part-time farm operations ("Other"). Part-time farms include places that cut hay two-three times/year and may raise a few beef cattle, but the adults have day jobs somewhere else.
Full-time farmers do not get health benefits with payments subsidized by their employer. Being employed in a school or local hospital at relatively low wages, and running a farm operation on just evenings and weekends, can make a big impact on the family budget.
Agriculture claims to be the single most important economic sector in Virginia's economy. That may be true, or the retail industry may be #1, but the farm community has great influence in Virginia politics. The Farm Bureau (the lobby organization for agriculture-related interests, comparable to the American Petroleum Institute for the oil and gas industry) rarely loses a battle in the General Assembly.
Think about the number of "principal operators" where farming was the primary occupation, compared to the 8,382,993 people people in Virginia. Are there very many voters who are full-time farmers, and that explains their political influence?
The number of voters who are full-time farmers is small - so why do the elected officials in the General Assembly pay such close attention to the Farm Bureau?
There were less than 4,000 coal miners in Virginia in 2014 - so why do the elected officials in the General Assembly pay such close attention to the coal industry?1
Farming is not evenly distributed across the state. Fairfax County was filled with dairy farms until the 1950's, but today the most common farm is a subdivision such as Franklin Farms where houses have been planted.
Think the members of the General Assembly from a Northern Virginia district would be more interested in protecting farmers from additional regulation by government agencies, or in reducing pollution runoff from agricultural lands to protect the Chesapeake Bay?
There are still cattle grazing in western Prince William County, but they are beef cattle raised for meat and not dairy cattle reproducing milk. Dairy cows must be milked daily, and the people who used to be willing to work on a farm in Prince William County have found better-paying jobs in construction. There is only one family still raising dairy cows in that county now.
Urban areas have imported food from rural areas since farming first was invented. Today, sophisticated "foodies" in Northern Virginia seek out restaurants that offer locally-grown items - but massive mechanized farms in places such as Iowa can grow corn, soybeans, and wheat at far less cost than Virginia farms. Because transportation by ship, rail, and truck is so inexpensive, vegetables grown in California and Florida fill the grocery store shelves in Northern Virginia.
There are few farms in the suburbs, because land values are too high.
Farmers typically make a profit of less than $1,000/acre each year; 100 acres planted in corn or soybeans in Fauquier County might generate a $50,000 income.
Once suburban sprawl reaches a rural area, farmers can make more profit by selling land. Selling a few 10-acre lots can generate $100,000 in profit with just the stroke of a pen.
Some farmers have figured out how to raise a high-value crop on a small number of acres, and still make a living in the suburbs. If you have visited a winery in western Loudoun County, you know one answer.
Other farmers have adopted the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) business model. They sell shares in their expected crop to suburban homeowners, who get a bag of fresh vegetables, herbs, and flowers each week. The CSA model guarantees a profit in advance for the former, no matter how the weather affects the crop, so long as the farmer sells ebnough shares. Purchasers share the risk that a drought or pests will reduce the quantity of food they will get each week throughout the growing season.
On less than one acre of land in Prince William, there is a very successful specialty farm now:
TrueFarms Hydroponic Farm, Farming without Dirt
Augusta and Rockingham counties are the center of farm production in Virginia now. Drive into Rockingham County on Route 11 and you'll be welcomed by a poultry statue.
Assume you are a recent college graduate, and you get a job where your primary responsibility is to get farmrs to adopt new conservation farming techniques to protect water quality.
How would that "Average age of principal operator" statistic affect your approach to existing farmers? If your job was to encourage farmers to grow new specialty crops for sale to restaurants interested in serving "local food" - would you focus on existing farmers with experience, or target your outreach to new graduates from Virginia Tech?
Total value of agriculture, measured by sales, was $3.7 billion.
Look at the next two lines. What percentage of that was from "crops" (such as corn, tobacco, soybeans) vs. livestock and poultry (cattle, pigs, chickens)?
Did Virginia have more cows than people? How about turkeys?
In 2013, the average size of a farm in Iowa was 346 acres, and the average net income per farm (after accounting for expenses) was $110,329.
The average size of a farm in Virginia was 180 acres, and the average farm's net income was $11,300.
Maybe those are just dry, boring numbers - but maybe they are clues to how people farm in Virginia. Look again at "Principal operators by primary occupation."
Think the households in Virginia that are engaged in farming are doing it full-time? Think the majority of farm families include at least one person with a full-time job working off the farm, perhaps providing health and retirement benefits?
Hay, raised primarily for cattle and horses and sheep, is the most important crop in Virginia, as measured by the number of acres devoted to hay - but much of the hay is used on the farm where it is grown, so the value of hay sales is relatively low.
Virginia is ranked as the #4 state for tobacco, selling $100 million.
After 1613, Virginia's economy depended upon tobacco. How does that crop rank in Virginia's economy today, compared to poultry?
Virginia is horse country; in the Civil War, cavalry units became famous in part because the Virginians had the best horses, allowing Mosby and JEB Stuart to take greater risks. In 2013, is the revenue from "Horses, ponies, mules, burros, and donkeys" greater than the revenue from the sale of clams and oysters ("Aquaculture")?
A decade ago, Virginia farmers dreamed of using genetically-engineered sheep and cows to produce drugs at lower cost than standard pharmaceutical processes in laboratories and factories. Low-value, too-steep-to-farm grazing land in the Valley and Ridge province could become high-value, ethical drug production sites.
Those dreams have faded. Pharmaceuticals may still be produced from tobacco, but those initiatives were damaged by the corrupt interaction between Governor McDonnell and Star Scientific. That company had tried creating a safer-to-smoke tobacco by curing it with microwaves, then evolved into producing a dietary supplement. The governor helped to market the tobacco-derived product through use of his office, in exchange for personal benefits.
Sabra's hummus factory is located (and expanding) in Chesterfield County, but most chickpeas are grown in the Northwestern states - at least for now.
Don't assume the future is "anything but tobacco." Tobacco plants could become biochemical factories, which is one way to re-purpose tobacco from health threat to drug source. Virginia's tobacco "pharmers" could produce drugs better/faster/cheaper than current techniques, but that remains speculative research.
Broilers may be Virginia's most valuable agricultural product today, hay might be #1 in acres, and soybeans may be Virginia's largest export when measured by volume... but tobacco is the crop most closely associated with agriculture in Virginia.
