Posted by David Hamilton on July 8th, 2009

There’s an excellent article in the Washington Post, by Jane Black, my new favorite food writer. It’s on Jim Dunlap, a retired CIA man who’s farming impressively on modest acreage in Loudon County, smack dab among the mansions of the encroaching exurban frontier. The article covers a number of land use and policy questions familiar to anyone who knows the Bundoran Farm story. Mr. Dunlap asks an excellent question: why can’t all those lots with pet horses and immaculate lawns be growing food? It’s a question anyone who’d looked at large lot development has asked themselves.

I’ve invited the author down to Bundoran Farm to explain why it’s so difficult to farm, if farming, food and forestry aren’t part of the planning process, and to show her why we’re doing some of the unusual things we do here, to preserve and perpetuate working agriculture on this land as people come to make this place home.  The article is a pretty fascinating story of a guy doing good things with land, in a context familiar to most Virginians, and it’s at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063000924.html

Filed under: Agriculture, Education and Inspiration, General