By Steven Allen Adams, The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — While nearly all businesses in West Virginia have struggled over the last 18 months as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the state, West Virginia’s farmers and food producers were able to improvise, adapt, and overcome.
Kent Leonhardt, the state’s agriculture commissioner, knows how to do that. As a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, the phrase “improvise, adapt, and overcome” is literally drilled into leathernecks from their time at boot camp until their honorable discharge.
This summer, the state Department of Agriculture is celebrating West Virginia’s farmers and food producers. Last week was National Farmers’ Market Week.
There are 155 farmers markets across the state, a 50% increase since the department took over regulation of the markets.
The department has a searchable database of farmers markets for people to find the closest to them. The farmers market search can be found at agriculture.wv.gov. Leonhardt said farmers markets provide an important service not just for farmers, but also the customers and help build relationships…
To read more: https://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2021/08/west-virginia-agribusinesses-weathering-pandemic/