Home Background Testimonials Student Programs Adult Programs Video Clips Recent Clients In The News On The Farm Contact Information	VA farm leader to serve on ag profitability study panel WASHINGTON—Virginia farmers will be represented in a two-year national study on farm profitability in America. A Rockingham County beef and poultry producer has been named to an American Farm Bureau Federation study panel that will examine U.S. agriculture's future in terms of productivity and profitability. Matt Lohr of Broadway will join the 22-person panel for the study, dubbed "Making American Agriculture Productive and Profitable." Lohr is president of the Rockingham County Farm Bureau. He was elected to the Rockingham County School Board in 2001 and is a past member and chairman of the Rockingham County Planning Commission. "I am so honored and excited to be a part of the MAAPP committee," he said. “It will be exciting to examine the future challenges of agriculture, as well as discover great opportunities for our industry. Through research and group collaboration, I am positive our committee will find ways to help agriculture succeed for generations to come.” The group will develop policy options to help Farm Bureau members become more productive and profitable for years to come. "This is a very important undertaking and one that will hopefully shed some light on how we can positively affect the challenges faced by American farmers," said Bruce Hiatt, president of Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. In order to formulate policy options, the study group will review economic trends, study foreign and domestic agricultural policy and consider such other policy areas as marketing, consumer perspectives and technology. The resulting policy proposals will be aimed at making U.S. agriculture productive and profitable through the year 2019, AFBF's 100th anniversary. With more than 4.2 million members, AFBF is the nation's largest farm organization.