The purpose of the Virginia Agriculture & Food Entrepreneurship Program is to support new and existing value-added food processing and food production enterprises and to strengthen direct producer-to-consumer partnerships in the Virginia Piedmont region through a series of educational workshops.

The VAFEP presents an excellent strategy for immediately and positively impacting the resiliency of our regional foodshed because the relationships formed between producers and consumers of locally grown foods generate ripple effects that are magnified throughout a community.

The exchange of locally produced food with those who consume it locally helps to create local food self-sufficiency and community food security – that is, it helps to integrate members of a community, promotes sustainable agriculture, secures family farms, enhances socio-economic welfare and incubates new generations of farmers. This relationship connects rural residents with urban dwellers and unites farming land with non-farming land and, in the process, strengthens communities.

Building local food resiliency is important because the data available on local and global food economies and systems demonstrates that our current model is vulnerable. We have become dependent on large “factory” farms using unsustainable methods that deplete the soil, pollute the air and water and treat our animals inhumanely. Our current industrial agricultural practices rely heavily on the use of fossil fuels that are dependent on a steady and cheap supply of foreign oil. We no longer know the names of the people who provide our food, much less how it was grown, processed or transported.

Restoring our communities through the relocalization of our food supply gives us the ability to strengthen the web that interconnects all aspects and all members of society, creating a more unified whole. As a result, we create a future that is more abundant and resilient, more environmentally sustainable, more socially equitable, more financially stable and more spiritually connected.