Priorities
Priority List
Expanding Market Access & Strengthening Rural Economic Development
Market Access remains one of the most important issues facing Virginia. To build a stronger future, we need to diversify market channels, so producers aren’t dependent on a single buyer or out-of-state processing. We are dedicated to growing markets and end users both domestically and internationally and promoting rural economic development.
We will partner with our agencies, the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, the Virginia Department of Forestry, and the Virginia Racing Commission to do so. Through active engagement with other secretariats, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Port of Virginia, and other entities, we will provide a steady and impactful response to the impacts of ever-changing foreign markets and farm policy at the federal level. In fact, in response to the Governor’s Executive Order 5, our Secretariat has developed a response and action plan to build farmers’ and forestry access to domestic and international markets and trade.
Our administration is also working to improve transportation, broadband, and rural infrastructure to support modern agribusiness and bring consumers to the farm, and the farm to consumers, when possible. We aim to work across Secretariats and agencies to encourage investment in rural communities and use our resources, like the Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) Fund, to support entrepreneurship and value-added enterprise.
We are working with stakeholders to develop the Commonwealth’s first “Farm & Forest Prosperity Plan” that will strategically guide our efforts over the next four years and will do the same in future administrations, leveraging programs like the AFID Fund and other resources that may have been overlooked by farmers and agribusinesses in the past.
Protecting Working Lands and Water
Virginia’s farms and forests are directly connected to the land, and the tributaries that flow through them. Conservation practices that reduce runoff, restore riparian buffers and install fencing, and support agricultural best management practices are not just environmental goals, they are economic drivers. These practices help to reduce input costs, increase yields and soil health, restore working forests, promote precision agriculture, and ensure our working lands and waters coexist. It is our secretariat’s goal to not only ensure land is productive, but also to ensure that land is accessible to new and beginning farmers and protected from development to guarantee a future for our industries. Without intentional planning, we risk losing multi‑generational and next-generation farms to development or fragmentation.
Investing in the Workforce for the Future
Workforce development is incredibly important within our Secretariat. Across the Commonwealth, labor and workforce issues are a critical concern for many businesses, and especially those in agriculture and forestry. Whether it’s workers in the H-2A program which help produce and harvest crops on a seasonal basis, to those who work in the livestock and poultry industry year-round, to the next generation of farmers, forest landowners, and agribusiness professionals - there are great needs.
We will work with our partners in labor, education, and our land-grant universities to develop and maintain a viable workforce for the future of Agriculture & Forestry through investments in Career and Technical Education, youth leadership programs such as 4-H, and FFA, and by working with our counterparts to identify barriers to employers and employment. We can and must maintain a workforce our industries will need now and into the future.
