RICHMOND—Over 100 Virginia agriculture leaders are uniting in Richmond for the Super Bowl of grassroots advocacy known as Legislative Day.
Farmers and foresters will make their priorities known at the General Assembly on Feb. 9, which was rescheduled due to Winter Storm Fern.
“At the top of our list for budget priorities is fully funding the Agricultural Best Management Cost Share Program,” said Katelyn Jordan, assistant director of VFBF governmental relations. This voluntary program helps farmers implement practices that further Chesapeake Bay water quality goals.
In his tenure, Gov. Glenn Younkin supported VFBF’s priority of fully funding ag BMPs, reaching $223 million for 2026—the highest funding ever.
But his final budget in December “came up just a bit short,” Jordan said. However, several Virginia lawmakers are carrying budget amendments to reach full program funding through 2028.
An effort to establish a framework for properly labeling manufactured protein food products, like fungus or plant-based proteins, is moving to the Virginia Senate.
“This bill requires alternative protein products to have a qualifying term on the label indicating the origin and the contents of the ingredients,” said VFBF legislative specialist Jake Tabor. “This will protect consumers and support transparency and truth in labeling.”
Farm Bureau opposed a bill that removes minimum wage exemptions for farm laborers.
“We did lose that exemption,” said VFBF working lands and state advocacy specialist Rachel Henley. “However, we did successfully safeguard the farm worker exemption for overtime. Those two bills will be moving to committee.”
Farm Bureau supported legislation that passed unanimously, giving localities the authority to create service districts to help control invasive plant species.
“This will give communities another targeted tool to help control the invasives that are causing a lot of economic damage to our farms and fields,” Tabor said.
Farm Bureau also supports proposed legislation regarding:
• Maintaining the Department of Forestry’s Virginia Forestry Sustainability Fund, helping localities recoup the cost of adopting forest land use assessment. The land use status provides real estate tax relief and furthers conservation by assessing forestland at its timber value rather than higher market value. Support of the fund over the next biennium would help localities offset some costs of assessment adoption.
• Continued fiscal support for the large animal veterinarian grant funds. A shortage of rural food-animal veterinarians persists statewide, due to high education costs and limited income expectations. The policy successfully moved through the General Assembly and will continue to be funded this year, “And hopefully going forward,” Jordan said.
• A budget amendment to secure $5 million in funding for DOF grants to protect waterways on logging jobs, and urban forestry programs that advance water quality goals.
• Creation of a state work group on “agrivoltaics” and its official definition as “the intentional co-location of agricultural production and solar energy generation.”
Keep track of agriculture-related legislation at plowsandpolitics.com/2026, the VFBF Plows and Politics blog.
-Virginia Farm Bureau
