Cooperative Living March/April 2021 - 12

FarmLife | by Nicole Zema, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation
'Outside My Comfort Zone'
Intensive two-year VALOR program develops leaders
who advocate for Virginia agriculture
ive groups of Virginia
agriculturalists found fresh
perspective when they ventured
beyond the familiarity of their own
backyards and returned with knowledge
to enhance agriculture at home.
Virginia Agriculture Leaders
Obtaining Results, or VALOR, is a
two-year program that develops leaders
who can engage, promote and create
collaborative solutions as they become
F
advocates for all segments of Virginia
agriculture. For alumni, every step was
an intense, transformative experience.
In two years, each class of
participants completes 12 experiential
seminars, including eight trips touring
Virginia's agricultural regions, two
capital seminars and a stateside and
international excursion. The range of
experiences helps develop leadership
skills. After broadening their minds
HUNTER RICHARDSON,
VALOR INAUGURAL CLASS
VALOR director Dr. Megan
Seibel tapped Hunter
Richardson, a King and Queen
County row crop and cattle
farmer, as a candidate for the
2012 inaugural class. He said
he'll never be the same.
" It's a program that pushed
me outside of my comfort zone, "
says Richardson, who has held a variety of leadership roles
with Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. " I was exposed to
a broad spectrum of many components of agriculture.
I needed that - it's how you grow as a leader. "
His class visited dairy, cheese and fruit farms in Michigan,
and farm chemical research and renewable energy operations
in Indiana.
VALOR participants stayed with farm families and got to
know them on a personal level: their challenges, approach
SHELLEY BARLOW,
VALOR CLASS II
Other VALOR participants
like Shelley Barlow awakened
under mosquito nets, puddlejumped
to villages along the
Mekong Delta, witnessed diverse
styles of food production and
met Vietnamese farmers, all
before lunchtime.
VALOR excursions are
immersive and its days are jam-packed, Barlow says. " Even
the meals are working lunches and dinners. "
10 | Cooperative Living | March-April 2021
through world travel and walking
in other farmers' boots, Virginia
agriculturalists become more effective
leaders.
Since Virginia Tech's College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences launched
the program in 2012, VALOR has
produced five alumni classes. What
happens in VALOR doesn't stay in
VALOR, though, and a couple of its
participants were eager to share.
to farm operations and way
of life.
" That was an added level
of experience, " Richardson says.
" Each stop provided a front-row
seat of challenges and solutions
to issues. "
Hunter Richardson, fifth from left, with the Inaugural VALOR
class in front of Perito Moreno Glacier, Los Glaciares National
Park in southwest Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.
The international trip to
Argentina gave him an alternate
perspective on agriculture.
He noticed differences in
agricultural systems, such as how much land is dedicated
to raising beef, corn and soybeans, without the benefit of
precision agriculture technologies that increase yields in
Virginia.
" I felt a sense in Argentina that things are slower-paced,
and there were a lot of challenges with revenue, " he says.
" What I was left with - Argentina has a tremendous amount
of potential in production, but the economic situation at
the time was a limiting factor. "
Shelley Barlow, second from right, traveled with her
VALOR class to Vietnam for its international component
and toured a rice-storage warehouse during the visit.
VALOR's international
component offered big-picture
perspective of the vastness of
global agriculture, notes Barlow,
who grows cotton, soybeans and
corn in Suffolk. The agricultural
threads stitched throughout
Vietnam's cultural tapestry
made a profound impression.
" Stepping out of Virginia,
it's pretty overwhelming -
the reach of agriculture in the whole world, " recalls Barlow,
who was part of the second class. " Vietnam is about the
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