HD61 - Ways to Improve Virginia's Farm Economy

  • Published: 1989
  • Author: General Assembly and House of Delegates
  • Enabling Authority: House Resolution 6 (Regular Session, 1988)

Executive Summary:
The 1988 House of Delegates adopted HR 6, which established a House subcommittee to study ways to improve Virginia's farm economy. This study was initiated because the profitability of Virginia's farm economy has been declining over the last decade.

The subcommittee was charged with the task of looking at means of improving Virginia's farm economy, including nontraditional uses of farm property for recreational activities, interstate and intrastate cooperatives, and agricultural opportunities hotlines.

During the course of the study, the subcommittee heard testimony from experts on public access to private property and recreational injury liability, farmers, rural landowners, and representatives of Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University, George Mason University, the Department of Conservation and Historic Resources, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Virginia Employment Commission, the Department of Labor and Industry, the Virginia Farmers' Market Board, agricultural cooperatives and the Cooperative Extension Service.