BRPI is creating an infrastructure that is efficient in delivering food and other products.
The Blue Ridge Plateau lays within a one-day drive of 62 percent of the US population. Local enterprises already package for supermarket chains over $150 million in foods received directly from farms in 5 states. Linked to east and west and north and south by the Interstate Highway System, we are uniquely positioned to serve the nutritional needs of many. Red Sun, a Mexican company, has placed 40 acres under greenhouses near Dublin, VA supplying tomatoes and other vegetables to the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Major breweries have moved into the region from California, Oregon, and other states and Pepsi Corporation has a major bottling operation near Wytheville, VA. The reason is simple—the magic elixir, WATER, is here.
This is our place and our time. We know our resources and capabilities better than those from afar. By setting the agenda, we will protect our interests into the far future.
Latest News
Moles: Too Rural? Do You Eat?
Creating Locally Managed Businesses
Blue Ridge Plateau Investment & Development Strategy
A Learning Organization
The Blue Ridge Plateau Initiative is a learning organization carefully evaluating the natural resources of Central Appalachia, the skills and experiences of the residences, and existing technologies and infrastructure used in agriculture and forestry. .
Each idea, each plan, must fit comfortably among the people and places on the land. By exploring what we’re capable of, what we’re willing to risk to engage, we know ourselves far better than those who wish to tell us who we are, what we should do, what’s best for us.
An Invitation
You’re invited to think with us how to enjoy the safest and most healthy food, keep our money at home buying from local producers, merchants, and service providers, and, given our resources engage, in new enterprises for which we’re uniquely capable.
As you explore our website, if you have questions or ideas about how you might contribute, we are willing to listen and, in the meantime, have identified many tasks and investments that will speed us along the way. Together, we are the responsible parties for our future.