Small farmers may be first in nation with organic co-operative
US - Three years ago at the Double A Farm, Linda and Ronnie Beale brought home a single litter of pigs to raise and feed their family.It was the first step into what became a business that supplies farmers' markets and restaurants with all-natural pork products. Soon, they added some chickens.
Now, the venture is about to transform Virginia agriculture for small farmers from Yale - the Beales' base in Sussex County - to Charles City County, from Lynchburg to Fredericksburg.
With backing from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, the Beales are the crux of a new organic farmers cooperative that could be the first in the nation to produce, process and market organic poultry products.
Source: Hampton Roads