Virginia Agriculture of the Middle (AOTM) Training & Tour of Value- Adding Food Science and Technology Facilities 

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Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Planned Program Teams for Community, Local, and Regional Food Systems (CLRFS), Agribusiness Management & Economics (AME), and the Virginia Agriculture of the Middle (AOTM) Workgroup, in collaboration with Virginia Tech’s Department of Food Science and Technology and the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation, held a workshop titiled “Virginia Agriculture of the Middle (AOTM) Training & Tour of Value-Adding Food Science and Technology Facilities” Monday, April 21, 2025. 

Dr. Becca Jablonski will be the featured presenter and speaker for the Agriculture of the Middle training, which will include facilitated small group discussions. Dr. Jablonski holds a MS from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and a PhD from Cornell University and is a member of the National Agriculture of the Middle (AOTM) Research Workgroup (NC1198) that focuses on different policy, education, infrastructural, organizational approaches and interventions to support this sector of the agricultural community. Presently, Dr. Jablonski is a visiting associate professor at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. In addition to research related to the Agriculture of the Middle and local food economies, Becca is presently investigating the role of municipalities in leveraging food policies to achieve progress towards sustainable development (e.g., food and nutrition security, farm and ranch viability, regional economic development, and environmental sustainability) across regions https://www.cityfoodpolicy.com/. 

The workshop was followed by a tour of Virginia Tech’s Human and Agricultural Biosciences Building 1, led by Dr. Alexis Hamilton, Assistant Professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Food Science and Technology. The tour highlighted the department’s value-adding food processing research and laboratory facilities and guided a discussion on how value-added foods and processes fit with the needs of the Agriculture of the Middle.