Section Abstracts: Agriculture, Forestry and Aquaculture

VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE: LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD. Sandra J. Adams, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Agriculture, the number one private industry in Virginia, contributes $52 billion annually to Virginia’s economy and supports 415,000 jobs. Though Native Americans grew crops and instructed the Jamestown settlers in New World agricultural practices, farming in Virginia is dated to 1614, the year of the first tobacco exports to Europe. Virginia has made and continues to make incredible contributions to the development and modernization of agriculture. George Washington was a pioneer in crop rotation and his meticulous recordkeeping led to many agricultural innovations. Thomas Jefferson’s introduction of new agricultural products and new growing practices had an effect on American agriculture that endures to this day. Other famous agricultural products and innovations include Cyrus McCormick’s development of the mechanical reaper; Fragaria virginiana, the first cultivar of the modern strawberry; country hams and Virginia style peanuts; Crassostrea virginica, Virginia’s native oyster that was noted in the journals of Captain John Smith and today has made a dramatic comeback from near extinction; and famous animals such as Secretariat and Elevation the bull, the progenitor of 10 percent of the world's Holstein population. To remain viable in the future, Virginia agriculture must make a profit, care for the planet in new and different ways, utilize new technologies such as gene modification and gene editing, grow food in new places and educate the public about its production methods. Concerns for the future include fear of genetically modified organisms, a growing distrust of traditional production methods and attempts to over regulate them, public acceptance of new technologies, and the ways we will feed a world population of more than nine billion by the year 2050.