Economic development students help American Farmland Trust strengthen Virginia farms
Virginia Tech graduate students are helping American Farmland Trust strengthen working farms across the commonwealth by giving the national nonprofit a clearer way to decide where its new Planning for Agriculture in Virginia Toolkit can make the most immediate impact.
Working through the university’s economic development studio, seven students examined 25 Virginia communities and developed a readiness matrix that American Farmland Trust can use to identify localities prepared to pilot the tool kit.
For the students, the project offered the kind of experience a classroom alone can’t provide — a real client, a complicated problem, and work that had to be useful. For American Farmland Trust (AFT), the work provided an objective way to move from a newly released online resource to action in communities facing growing pressure from low-density development, data centers, solar energy projects, and other competing uses for rural land.
“The students in the economic development studio worked to address a pressing issue and delivered a project that will inform AFT’s efforts to create a brighter future for farms,” said John Provo, executive director of the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement, who co-taught the class with Elli Travis M.S. ’15, Ph.D. ’25, associate director for impact and evaluation.
Through the economic development studio, graduate students work under faculty supervision with communities and organizations on real economic development challenges. Clients get research they can act on, and students get experience before starting their careers.
The studio is a collaboration between the center, which is part of Outreach and International Affairs, and the School of Public and International Affairs.
American Farmland Trust’s toolkit is an online resource designed to give communities guidance rooted in Virginia law and planning practice. It includes examples communities can use to preserve farmland and support agriculture in local planning efforts, from protecting working farms and encouraging agricultural economic development to developing strategies that support renewable energy while sustaining agricultural land.
“The studio provided the platform to look at this issue from an economic development perspective,” said Travis, who is a member of the trust's advisory committee that supported the development of the tool. “Farms can be an engine for economic development, but we need to build the infrastructure needed for healthy agricultural systems.”
Agriculture is Virginia’s largest private industry, supporting jobs, businesses, and communities across the commonwealth. But between 2001 and 2016, 340,000 acres of farmland in Virginia were converted to development and another 800,000 acres could be lost in the next two decades without better planning and supportive local policies. Rising land values put additional pressure on the agricultural economy, making it harder for small farmers to expand and for new farmers to access land.
The farming population is also aging. Farmers 65 and older represent a growing share of Virginia’s producers while relatively few are under 35, raising concerns about long-term farm viability.
Lydeana Martin, community and economic development director for Floyd County, emphasized agriculture’s economic impact in rural areas.
“Food is essential and local food creates a food oasis, boosting health and quality of life. Farms also have an outsized impact on community character, providing the beauty and peace of rural life,” she said.
To guide the American Farmland Trust’s next steps, the students reviewed economic development and comprehensive plans, interviewed economic developers and community officials, and analyzed local agricultural and economic data.
Their readiness matrix gives the trust a visual way to compare communities. One axis measures production capacity, including the percentage of a locality’s acreage that is farmland and the percentage of its gross domestic product that comes from agricultural activity. The other axis, operational buy-in, focuses on localities’ interest in and ability to invest in agriculture.
Anhad Viswanath M.S. '26, who earned a master’s degree in urban and regional planning, said the studio helped him better understand client expectations in economic development. Through the project, he gained experience interpreting data and conducting interviews and outreach with a wide range of economic developers and community officials.
“Through the interviews, I got to meet and interact with professionals from different parts of Virginia,” Viswanath said. “I enjoyed learning more about their projects and how they are spreading awareness about the importance of agriculture.”
Eunju Namkung, a graduate student in urban and regional planning, used NotebookLM, an artificial intellligence tool, to help review 25 economic development and comprehensive plans, some of them hundreds of pages long.
“I enjoyed experimenting with new technologies and collaborating to create a product that will end up being of use to an organization,” Namkung said.
Kathryn Skeen M.S. '26, who graduated from the Master of Urban and Regional Planning 4+1 program, said the economic development studio was a strong simulation of the type of work she hopes to do.
“I got experience that I’m able to put on my resume and talk about in interviews,” she said.
Todd Haymore, former Virginia secretary of agriculture and forestry and former secretary of commerce and trade, served as one of the guest speakers for the class.
“The students highlighted places in the report that are ripe for future opportunities in agriculture as well as places you wouldn’t normally associate with agriculture, where there are countless opportunities or something nascent that could be built on,” Haymore said. “That kind of insight is important as we continue looking for new ways to support and strengthen our agricultural and forestry heritage.”
After the American Farmland Trust selects a locality and completes a pilot project, the organization plans to augment and refine the toolkit to reflect lessons learned. It also plans to replicate the model in other parts of the country.
Julia Freedgood, senior fellow and senior program advisor for the trust, said the students’ work helped the organization better understand how economic developers think about agriculture and farmland preservation.
“The students’ research showed us where we need to work more closely with economic developers so they recognize the full economic, environmental, and community benefits of agriculture,” Freedgood said. “Maintaining farmland in active production supports jobs, strengthens regional food systems, and contributes to long-term resilience, while sound farming practices also improve water quality and soil health. This work is about sustaining a vibrant agricultural economy that benefits communities across the commonwealth.”
