The Virginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation and Rural Sustainability (VA FAIRS) has helped producers apply for more than $23.95 million in funding in 2022 to expand their farming efforts in reaching local communities.
“We’re the best-kept secret in agriculture in Virginia,” Wilmer Stoneman, VA FAIRS executive director, said in a press release. “But I want to be the most well-known service in Virginia.”
In James City County, Kerry Messer grows lavender at Sweethaven Lavender. A value-added producer grant made it possible for Messer’s farm to expand into a venue and retail space to showcase unique handcrafted products.
Coastal Cattle in Virginia Beach is where Hereford cattle are raised by the Vaughn family for direct-markets beef. The family outgrew its sales shed and expanded into a retail store called “The Meat Shack,” also thanks to VA FAIRS funding, according to the press release.
Other success stories include Cullipher Farm Market in Pungo which sold produce wholesale but outgrew its business plan. Now a farm attraction with U-pick, a play area and a farm market to sell local produce, seafood, meats and value-added products including canned and baked goods and ice cream, the farm owes its success to funding by a VA FAIRS grant.
“If you can get a higher-value product out of what you’re already growing—it’s exponentially a gain,” sixth-generation farmer Mike Cullipher said in the press release.
In a value-added show-and-tell at last month’s VA FAIRS annual meeting, officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development and Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services learned of these projects.
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Rebecca Barnabi
