To establish a robust and profitable agriculture in Central Appalachia, we’re creating an infrastructure that is efficient in delivering food and other products. Over the past 20 years, many lessons have been learned; and together with our experiences and the knowledge gained, we’re putting in place management practices, technologies, and investments that serve our communities in building a brighter, sustainable, and more financially secure future.
Blessed with good soil, adequate rainfall and hardworking people, the Blue Ridge Plateau of Virginia has an agriculture history of many generations. The food grown here is healthy, nutrient dense, and produced with low amounts of pesticides, antibiotics and chemical fertilizer.
Starting at the end of WWII with the emergence of large scale, industrial food production with globalized corporate marketing, many local farmers were forced out of business and those remaining often struggle to earn a living. Inexpensive food made with massive amounts of chemicals, of poor nutritional quality, using unsustainable amounts of water and contributing to one third of the excess carbon leading to climate change is a national norm and challenge.
We are prepared to lead the change toward growing an abundance of healthy food using techniques that do not contribute to climate change or national obesity. To do this, we are creating a quality, integrated food system.
As the West and Midwest become increasingly dry and the population of the USA continues to expand, Central Appalachia is in a unique position to create productive and profitable agriculture. 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.
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. As our appreciation deepens, as we understand in greater depth our landscapes and watersheds, and as we learn of the ongoing activities of business enterprises and the services offered by both public and private agencies; we are increasingly capable of selecting markets for which we’re uniquely capable of entering. Our mission is to establish self-perpetuating sustainable and resilient environmental, financial, and social relations linked to natural and market forces that do not degrade our resources, both natural and human while achieving financial independence for participants. Without solutions in hand, the only answer available is to learn by doing, being a learning organization while creating a learning culture with those engaged.
Our Mission: To sustainably link the people and natural resources of Central Appalachia to high-value agriculture and forestry markets.
Each idea, each plan, must fit comfortably among the people and places on the land. This is why we have started here and now, getting to know each other, engaging those already involved as we make a difference. We build based upon what already exists right here, right now, in our communities along the ridge tops and in the valleys between. 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. Please be forewarned, as we travel along this path, we’re totally dedicated to caring for our beautiful lands and vistas. This is the mission of the Blue Ridge Plateau Initiative.
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.
