From the category archives:

Energy

Oil Crop For Virginia Farmers?

by Staff on January 19, 2012

Oil and Gas on Central VA FarmsKnock knock.  Who’s there?   Oil Farmer who?

Some farmers in central VA can expect a knock on the door from an oil executive who has a motive.  If some oil companies have estimated correctly… there’s an abundance of oil and natural gas under Virginia farms.  Already, farmers in Caroline, Essex, King George and Westmoreland counties are being paid $15 per acre by an oil firm in exchange for the right to set up rigs and equipment in order to look for any gas or oil reserves.  The farmers would then also receive one-eighth of whatever is discovered.

The oil companies are specifically looking in the Fredericksburg VA area.    They hope to lease about 80,000 acres of private land and also another 20,000 acres of government land for their testing.  If they’re successful in finding oil or gas resources, they still need to build the infrastructure to get the products to the marketplace, so this story will be around for a while.     HERE are more details of the plan.

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A Hard Look at Factory Farms

by Staff on October 21, 2011

Recently we notified you about the opportunity to attend an event sponsored by the Piedmont Environmental Council in Charlottesville.  The topic of discussion was “Family Farms vs. Factory Farms”.    Similar meetings are starting to crop up all over the country, expressing concern about the overall impact of large ‘factory’ farm methods (the source of most U.S. food).

Next week Oct 27-29, Virginia is the setting for a national group conference for opponents of factory farming.   According to THIS ARTICLE in the Huffington Post,  Farm Sanctuary has organized the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming .  It will be held in Arlington and will bring together more than 30 health, environmental and animal welfare experts to share their opinions.  Concerns range from sustainability to energy conservation to animal health – - any topic that might improve the systems and quality of our food production system.

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VA Farm Produces Cooking Oil and Biodiesel Fuel

by Staff October 4, 2011

Did you know that natural canola oil comes from the seeds of a plant that is a member of the mustard family and it is naturally yellow in color?  Manufacturers use chemicals to remove the color prior to sending it to market  (in much the same way that maraschino cherries go from red to white then back [...]

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Grants Help Culpeper VA Farmers

by Staff September 23, 2011

A Culpeper farm is the recipient of a grant that will allow it to test some crop drying equipment.  Glebe Farms, a corn and soybean farm, will receive $19,953 which they’ll use to help fund a crop-drying machine.  They hope to use the grant to improve efficiency and energy consumption by drying the crops to prevent [...]

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Summit Meeting on Sustainable Farming in Central VA

by Staff April 20, 2011

On April 23rd in central Virginia, there will be a gathering of the  Shenandoah Sustainability Summit in Harrisonburg (in the Shenandoah Valley of central VA).    It is hosted by the Fairfield Center in downtown Harrisonburg, and runs from 10:00 – 3:00 on 4/23/11. Everyone is welcome, and participants will include experts on topics such as alternative [...]

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A Penny For Your Miscanthus Thoughts

by Staff March 27, 2011

Up till now, we’ve heard the word ‘miscanthus’ mentioned relatively few times, and those times were in limited agricultural discussion.  But that may change soon. A proposal by Piedmont BioProducts in Pittsylvania County VA has a plan for creating a refinery fuel technology by having farmers grow miscanthus… a tall woody grass with large stems… and [...]

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