A Corn Field on a Farm, Photograph, n.d.

From the time the earliest English settlers arrived in 1607 to today, corn has been a staple crop in Virginia. Farmers across the state grew vegetables like corn to eat and to feed their farm animals. As America's population increased, the demand for corn also grew. By the late-19th century, the development of commercial and industrial agriculture allowed for the mass production of corn-based goods to be manufactured to meet the growing demand. In the twenty-first century, corn ranks as the seventh-largest agricultural export from Virginia, bringing in over $325,000,000 per year.

Cash crop culture centers on growing or cultivating large amounts of a single product. The focus on a single product requires a significant amount of acreage, money, and large numbers of workers or mechanization. From colonization, Virginia's farmers focused on producing tobacco as a single cash crop. Up until 2003, it was the biggest cash crop produced in Virginia.

In the late nineteenth century, companies bought up large amounts of land to produce cash crops. This resulted in industrial agricultural production, or agribusiness, which relied heavily on mechanization, fertilization, and pest eradication to produce large amounts of a single crop. Industrial agriculture production was so organized that these companies became the agricultural equivalent of machine factories, prompting the term “factory farming.”

Industrial agriculture was met with no small amount of controversy. Family farms suffered because they often could not compete with the large companies on price or quantity. Building large meant that some companies aggressively purchased land owned by farming families and small-scale farming operations. Critics also pointed out that industrialized farming could have serious impacts on the environment, as growing the same product on a specific plot of land could strip the soil of nutrients, possibly making the land barren. In the second half of the twentieth century, scientists became increasingly concerned with the use of pesticides and the harm they were doing to the environment. Today, many are concerned about genetic modification of crops.

Despite controversies and concerns, Virginia's agribusiness thrives. In 2021, farming was counted as Virginia's largest private industry. Virginia produces more diverse crops than most states in the US. Corn ranks seventh in production, behind poultry and cattle, soybeans, and "miscellaneous crops," which includes diverse crops like vegetables, sunflowers, and seeds. 

Citations/For Further Reading:

Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, "Agriculture Facts and Figures," https://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/markets-and-finance-agriculture-facts-and-figures.shtml. 

USDA, "Annual Statistical Bulletin: Virginia, 2006," https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Virginia/Publications/Annual_Statistical_Bulletin/bulletin2006.pdf.

Citation: Mann, Harry C. (1866-1926), A.W. Cormick and Co. H.C. Mann., n.d., Visual Studies Collection, Harry C. Mann Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia.