P R E S E R V E  G R A Y S O N · G R A Y S O N  C O U N T Y,  V I R G I N I A

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Our Water,

Our Farms,

Our Future

 

We've asked. We've been heard. But the laws haven't changed, and enforcement is still sparse. Now we're asking the Commonwealth to act— for clean water, honest farming, and small farms that can survive.​​​

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Who we are

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Preserve Grayson is a small grassroots nonprofit that formed about six years ago to support small farms and community in the face of the onslaught of corporate industrial agriculture.

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We are particularly worried about the misuse of pesticides and their effects on our air and water. We educate the public and work for change.

 

We support our local economy, and we oppose any form of extraction or exploitation where most of the profits go outside this area. We support our Hispanic community and work toward fair treatment for all.

 

We are here to foster communication and preserve the traditional, peaceful way of life of Grayson and the surrounding counties.

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​The Threat to Our Health and Livelihood

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Grayson County has always been a place of small farms, clean streams, and mountain woods. In recent years, though, a wave of industrial-scale agriculture has changed how our land is used — and a great deal of that change flows from large-scale agricultural operations.

 

Our biggest concern is pesticides. Some of the largest operations spray from helicopters on high ridges in our gusty and unpredictable mountain winds, and those chemicals don't stay put. They drift onto neighboring homes, gardens, pastures, wells, streams, and beehives. Beekeepers lose colonies. Neighbors who live and farm right next door have no way of knowing what was sprayed, when, or how close. And when people have raised concerns, too many have felt suppressed — afraid to speak up at all.

 

We worry about what heavy, repeated chemical use means for our water, our soil, our pollinators, and the health of everyone here — especially the farmworkers, many of them our Hispanic neighbors, who work closest to these chemicals. They are owed real pesticide-safety training and protective equipment, and real enforcement of the rules that already require both. And we worry about the squeeze on small and mid-size family farms, who can't compete with operations whose profits mostly leave the county.

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What we've already tried — and we're grateful

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This isn't a first attempt. Over the past several years, a lot of good people have taken these concerns seriously, and we're thankful for every one of them.​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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• The Request to the Board of Supervisors for a Resolution
  Preserve Grayson brought a draft resolution to the Grayson County Board of Supervisors. Rather than take it up, the Board thanked us for our efforts and referred it to the County's Cooperative Extension office for review. [CLICK HERE]

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• Our Legislators' Letter to the Commonwealth
  August 2022 — four Southwest Virginia legislators wrote to the Governor's cabinet, describing high-altitude aerial spraying drifting onto homes, farms, beehives, and creeks, and asking the state to investigate and to consider buffers, advance-notice rules, and more inspectors. [CLICK HERE]

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• The Commonwealth's Review
  June 2023 — at the Board's request, our local Cooperative Extension office prepared a detailed review of the law. [CLICK HERE]

 

• Senate Bill 911 — the Pollinator Protection bill
  2025 — State Senator Bill Stanley, who represents Grayson, carried a bill to require simple advance notice before aerial spraying and a public record of what's applied, to protect pollinators and neighbors alike. [CLICK HERE]

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And yet — nothing has really changed

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Here is what those efforts taught us. The Commonwealth's own review confirmed what we had come to understand: under Virginia law, local governments have no authority to regulate pesticides at all. That power presently rests solely with the state and federal government. Our county cannot set a buffer zone, require a warning before spraying, or place any limit on aerial application — no matter how many of its people ask for it.

 

And SB 911 — a modest, common-sense transparency bill — died in committee, opposed by some of the most powerful agricultural lobbies in Richmond. Even the state agriculture agency stood against it.

 

So despite bringing a resolution before our county, a letter from our own legislators, a state review, and a bill in the General Assembly, the high-altitude spraying continues. The drift continues. Our neighbors still cannot find out what is being applied beside their homes and wells. The problems — and the operators causing them — remain.

 

We are not discouraged. We are clear-eyed. If the authority rests with the Commonwealth, then it is the Commonwealth we must ask. This October, we're bringing our community together to re-engage our policymakers — local and state — not to complain, but to work with them on concrete, achievable steps.

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What we're asking the Commonwealth to do

 

Three asks. Each is realistic, each respects the fact that farmers need to farm, and each is designed to work within the state's authority — not around it.​​​​

 

 

​1. Enforce the law, and make what's sprayed publicly available

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Enforce the pesticide laws already on the books — and give the public a simple way to know what is being sprayed, when, and where. Create a searchable public database of aerial and large-scale pesticide applications, so that neighbors, beekeepers, and farmworkers can see what is in their air and water. And enforcement must reach the protections farmworkers are already owed under federal law — pesticide-safety training and proper protective equipment — which too often go unmet in the field.

 

SB 911 already proposed exactly this kind of public posting. We ask the Commonwealth to make it law.

 

2. Create a "Good Neighbor" certification — and give it teeth

 

Create and actively market a voluntary "Good Neighbor" certification for growers: protecting biodiversity and pollinators, honoring buffer zones near homes, streams, and hives, being transparent about what's applied, and giving advance warning before spraying. Make it worth earning — with real rewards for certified operations, such as preference in state programs, cost-share eligibility, and a marketing advantage — so that being a good neighbor pays.

 

A voluntary, state-backed program rewards the farmers already doing right, and it works even though counties cannot set their own rules.

 

3. Help small farms move to sustainable practices

 

Expand technical and financial support for small and mid-size farms transitioning to sustainable, lower-input practices. As fuel and input costs keep rising, sustainable methods are increasingly the only way small farms survive — and they protect our water, soil, and pollinators at the same time.

 

Virginia's new Farm & Forest Prosperity Plan is being written now. Small-farm sustainability support belongs in it.

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