April 3 2007
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors
Dear Supervisors,
The Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club is writing to ask that Albemarle County fund the Community Development rural areas support position, called for in the comprehensive plan, with dollars from the recently created Economic Development Opportunity Fund. A key task of the rural areas support position is development of local agricultural marketing opportunities. Some $250,000 are sitting available in the Fund, seemingly for purposes such as this. We ask that the County commit to this use of funds at the Board of Supervisors budget session scheduled for 9 May.
A robust agriculture sector is seen as vital in Albemarle County rural areas policies. Food producing agriculture, of course, is needed to sustain civilization. In addition, a profitable agricultural sector would promote retention of agricultural lands in open space and help stem destruction of our rural areas through residential buildout.
Unfortunately, profit potential of traditional commodity production agriculture is limited and acres in agriculture in Albemarle County have declined. The Sierra Club believes that if agriculture is to survive and prosper, Albemarle County’s agricultural sector needs to be transformed, with a new focus on production and marketing of locally grown foods to area residents. We are hardly alone in this view, as evidenced by the existence of organizations such as EAT Local and the 1 May conference in Charlottesville on improving local food security .
Having worked for over a century to protect the environment, the Sierra Club also is strongly interested in promotion of ecologically sound agricultural systems. Additional information on Sierra Club agricultural positions can be found at the links listed at the end of this email.
The Sierra Club is disturbed by the pattern of supervisors placing significant commitments to protect open space resources in the Albemarle County comprehensive plan, followed by reluctance or refusal to implement these commitments. We find this unacceptable. Although funding for the rural areas support position was recommended in the budget developed by the County Executive, the reduction in property tax rate recently adopted by you has jeopardized funding for this position. Some of you claimed that reduction of the tax rate was an act of fiscal responsibility. However, we believe environmental protection and fiscal responsibility are inseparable. Preserving agricultural land will save taxpayer dollars that might otherwise have been used to pay for the costs of new development.
Development of an agricultural sector in Albemarle County focused on local marketing will require new leadership. Some initiatives, such as local farm to school food programs, cannot succeed without local government participation. In many recent decisions, the Board of Supervisors has taken an activist stance in economic development. Please apply funds from the Economic Development Opportunity Fund to foster revitalization of Albemarle’s agricultural sector and simultaneously help protect County open spaces.
Sincerely, Thomas Olivier, Conservation Chair, Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club
Links to Sierra Club agriculture-related web pages:
http://virginia.sierraclub.org/mvg/localfood.html
http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/
http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/agriculture.asp