RICHMOND, Va. — Governor Glenn Youngkin issued a proclamation today to recognize the tenth anniversary of the first Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) fund program. The initial AFID fund award was made to Franklin County on December 17, 2012, in support of an expansion by Homestead Creamery. Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Matthew Lohr presented the Governor’s proclamation during a tenth anniversary celebration event at Homestead Creamery, with many of the legislators and government officials who helped make the program a reality in attendance.
“I am committed to making Virginia the best state to live, work, and raise a family. To achieve this goal, it is imperative that we provide strong support for our two largest private sector industries, agriculture and forestry, to help strengthen economic vitality in urban as well as rural Virginia,” said Governor Youngkin. “I ask the General Assembly to join me in expanding the AFID Fund, so that we can continue our momentum of securing major investment in the Commonwealth, by industry leading companies like Perdue Agribusiness, Birdsong Peanuts and indoor vertical farming company Plenty Unlimited.”
“From bringing major new sawmills and poultry processors to rural Virginia communities, to supporting smaller craft beverage and food processing projects in the Commonwealth’s urban crescent, there’s no question that the AFID Fund has helped make agriculture and forestry a prevalent component of our economic development efforts,” said Secretary Lohr. “As we reflect on ten years of the AFID program, I am heartened by the great diversity of companies and communities it has supported. I look forward to expanding the program’s impact in the years to come.”
The AFID program was born upon recognizing that Virginia’s first and third largest private sector industries, agriculture and forestry, needed a state economic development incentive that met the particular needs of those industries and guaranteed new market opportunities for Virginia’s farmers and forestland owners. The program has supported agriculture- and forestry-based economic development in approximately 100 cities, towns, and counties across the Commonwealth, and demonstrates a shared commitment to the success of Virginia’s farms and forestlands.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Agriculture and Forestry Development administers the AFID Fund on behalf of Virginia’s Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry. AFID grants are awarded in partnership with local governments, who provide matching funds, to incentivize new or expanding businesses that add value to agriculture or forest products to locate in that community. These businesses must commit to creating new jobs, make a substantial capital investment in the locality, and, unique to this program, source inputs from Virginia farms and forests. Since the initial 2012 award to Homestead Creamery, more than 120 projects have received approximately $12 million in AFID grant fund awards. These grants helped create over 4,000 jobs, generated more than $1.4 billion in new capital investments, and facilitated the purchase of more than $1.4 billion of Virginia grown products. A map of these awards is available here.
In addition to helping Virginia communities secure economic development projects in agriculture and forestry, the AFID Fund offers localities two other innovative programs to support these important industry sectors. The AFID Planning Grants program awards smaller, matching grants to local governments to fund planning projects and local initiatives such as feasibility studies for commercial kitchens or meat processors, implement new agritourism initiatives, or to create plans for the preservation of working lands. Since May 2013, nearly $1.1 million in AFID Planning Grant awards have supported 52 projects, both local and regional in scope, to support 63 Virginia localities. The recently created AFID Infrastructure program competitively awards grants of up to $50,000 for investment in local food system infrastructure. In the program’s first two rounds, December 2021 and June 2022, a total of 20 grants received awards of more than $373,000. These projects ranged from new boilers for community canneries, cold storage equipment for meat processors, farmers market facility enhancements, to a new wool baler to aid product processing for market.
“In 2012, I was pleased to work with Governor Robert McDonnell, then Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore, and my General Assembly colleagues Senator John Watkins, Delegate Edward Scott and Delegate Steven Landes to sponsor the legislation creating the AFID Fund. More recently, I was also glad to support amendments by Delegates Guzman and Rasoul expanding and creating the AFID Planning and Infrastructure Grant programs,” said Senator Bill Stanley. “Supporting Virginia’s hardworking farm families and the many economic and quality of life benefits that farms and forests bring to our residents is the responsibility of all the Commonwealth’s elected officials. I look forward to this continued cooperation with my colleagues in meeting this responsibility and making life better for all Virginians.”
“As Franklin County was the first locality to have taken advantage of all three AFID Programs, I can attest that the program has provided our leadership with important tools to support our county’s largest and most important industry, agriculture,” said Ronnie Thompson, Chairman of the Franklin County Board of Supervisors. “Because agriculture does not fit in many of the traditional economic development assistance programs, the AFID Programs have allowed us to provide much-needed support to these important businesses. I commend Senator Bill Stanley for being a co-patron of the 2012 bill that created the AFID Fund and the good work of his colleagues in the General Assembly for recognizing the value of agriculture and forestry in Virginia and for creating a way for state and local governments to be partners in the success of these industries.”
To learn more about the AFID Fund, visit www.vdacs.virginia.gov/marketing-agriculture-and-forestry-development.shtml.
–Michael Wallace, VDACS