Focus | Agritourism: Inside the buzz
Story by Chris Graham
Story Ideas: freepress2@ntelos.net
There’s been a lot of talk about agritourism in Augusta County in recent weeks, to the point of having us border on being trendy jumping into the fray. Trendy or not, the idea isn’t necessarily something new in the ag sector, even if the word is.
“Agritourism as a term is new, but the concept has been around for a long time,” said Elaine Lidholm with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, who grew up on a farm outside St. Louis, Mo., in the 1950s and 1960s, and watched her parents develop a very informal agritourism business with a dedicated campground and log cabin to accommodate visitors and harvest festivals that brought people out to the farm to buy their produce.
“We just didn’t call it agritourism,” Lidholm said.
The agritourism concept is similar to what Lidholm grew up with in the ’50s and ’60s. “Farmers need to look at ways to keep viable and prospering. Agritourism is one of those ways. It compliments everything else they’re doing,” said Nancy Sorrells, a member of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors and vocal agribusiness advocate.
The talk about the need for a focus on agritourism in county economic-development policy is heating up as the ag industry in Augusta County is both growing and contracting, based on the numbers. From 2002 to 2007, there was a 2 percent growth in the number of farms in Augusta County, bucking the conventional wisdom that farmers are fleeing the industry in search of greener economic pastures. But in the same time frame, the number of acres devoted to agriculture shrank from 306,000 acres in 2002 to 286,000 acres in 2007.
“The pressure on farmers is clearly there,” county economic-development director Dennis Burnett said.
The county economic-development plan includes among its action points the development of strategies to help farmers grow and diversify their businesses. “That very clearly to me is a direction to promote diversity in the agricultural community,” Burnett said.
“The potential is here. The issue is getting our hands around it and seeing where we can take it next,” Burnett said. “It contributes to the bottom line if we can make farming more economically viable. And at the same time, it preserves our rural landscape. It can be a win-win for everybody.”
“Everybody wants to save agriculture, but you can’t save it sitting in your living room drinking coffee griping about somebody building a house. You have to do something about it. Unfortunately we don’t have a bunch of wealthy retired people willing to buy up all the farmland and say, OK, it’s all preserved for the next hundred years, good luck. It’s not happening,” said Craig Nargi, a restauranteur-turned-stable owner, at Hermitage Hill Farm and Stables just outside of Waynesboro, who jumpstarted the agritourism talk with an event at his farm back in October.
To Nargi, what needs to happen is farmers thinking agritourism need to get together with county officials on issues involving planning and zoning and the development of information packets and economic-incentive packages to help farmers through the process.
“We need to be cognizant of the fact that life happens. Don’t handicap us. Don’t stop us from doing what we need to do,” Nargi said.
I listened to the “Agri-tourism Brings In A Boost For Augusta County” story on WHSV this morning and I’ve read this story with great fascination…especially since an activity that would be considered Agri-tourism was shut down in Augusta County by the Board of Zoning Appeals. Looks like they didn’t get the memo…
Our club, the Valley AeroSpace Team, had held monthly rocket launches in a Swoope (Augusta County) farm pasture for 14 months (and in a few other fields from Jan. 2006 to June 2008). In July, 2009, we were notified by the Zoning Administrator that a Special Use Permit was required to continue our activities. We applied for and presented our request to the Zoning Board at their Sept., 2009 meeting. They subsequently denied our request.
Although not huge numbers, our events brought people into the County from outside the area to participate. A statement made by one BZA member at the meeting was that “the applicant does have a lot of support from out of the area although that does not impact the Board very much” (see Minutes of Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting, dated Sept. 3, 2009 on Augusta County website). He was referring to the 35 letters of support they’d received from some of our participants who lived outside the area. These participants stayed at local hotels, they ate at local restaurants, and they shopped at local stores. Most even mentioned this fact in their letters. Isn’t this the very thing you portrayed as being positive in the story?
It’s interesting to read the transcripts of the September BZA meeting and find that their decision was based on no relevant zoning issues or land use laws. In fact, there is no reasoning for their decision listed in the record at all. One member stated that “Swoope is true agriculture land” and that “this site is not a proper place for the rocket launching use” (see Minutes of Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting, dated Sept. 3, 2009). Of course, neither he nor any of the other members who voted against us offered any reasons as to why they thought this.
We were told we’d be hard pressed to get the BZA members to approve our permit even before the meeting due to some very influential residents in the Swoope Community. Turns out there’s a few that seem to be totally against any type of youth related activity taking place “in their backyard”. We had hoped and trusted that the BZA members would look at the facts of our presentation as well as make their decision based on applicable zoning and land use laws. Guess who was surprised…
Also, if anyone thinks that rocket launches shouldn’t be considered Agri-tourism since it’s unrelated to agriculture (other than the farm field), you should know that Hot Air Balloon Rides, Hang Gliding, Cross-Country Skiing, Music Festivals, Biking, etc…are all considered Agri-tourism (see Appendix M – Agri-Tourism Activities on Augusta County website) as reported by the Agriculture Task Force. None of these activities have any closer a relationship to agriculture than our activity.
I believe the County is contradicting itself…
We’ve appealed the Board’s decision to the Circuit Court of Virginia and are currently awaiting a hearing date to be set.
Sincerely,
Chuck Neff
Augusta County Resident
Valley AeroSpace Team – President
http://www.valleyaerospace.com
250 Arrowhead Lane
Stuarts Draft, VA 24477
540-885-3138 (H)
540-280-8908 (C)
Interestingly, most of the activities listed under agri-tourism – cross-country skiing, hang-gliding, hot air ballooning, etc. – tend to be quiet and non-mechanized. The music festival, perhaps not so much, unless it’s folk music or maybe bluegrass. I don’t see a lot of three-wheeling or snowmobiling listed.
I personally think that shooting off rockets sounds like a fine rural activity, but perhaps people don’t want such things in the area.
Augusta needs to do more to support its real farmers who actually produce a product and forget about people like Craig Nargi who are just looking for a hand out to help fund what he believes is agritourism! Anybody who has ever talked to him for more than 5 min can tell he is better suited to wearing a apron and cooking than he is trying to change an industry that he knows nothing about!! I recall seeing him on the news complaining about the hardships of winter weather on his operation. He is quickly becoming the laughing stock of the Valleys farming industry!!