You might have heard that lean beef is back as a healthy food. Now there’s a study to support that.

Virginia’s Farm Link program is a decade old, and Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers are working to reboot the program and encourage more farmers and would-be farmers to get connected.

Virginia Farm Bureau’s blog, The Real Dirt, is for anyone with an interest in agriculture.

Popular cuts of meat and poultry will be required to have nutritional information on their packaging in the coming year.

Choice cuts of beef such as filet mignon are among the most-shoplifted merchandise in the country, trade publication Adweek reported recently.

Virginia has at least 40 winter farmers’ markets, twice as many as it had in 2010, according to findings of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Virginia Farm Bureau’s monthly television program has a new name and new content. After a decade on the air, Down Home Virginia, is now Real Virginia and features a new chef and a vegetable gardening expert.

More than 1,040 new farmers’ markets have been recorded across the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Charlie and Miriam Maloney are proving that ginger can be grown successfully in Virginia.

Sweet potatoes, a longtime Thanksgiving and Christmas staple, are native to the Americas and were a main source of nourishment for early homesteaders and for soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

Consolidate your holiday shopping at the Dec. 10 Virginia Food & Wine Festival, where you can find numerous Virginia foods, wines and specialty products.

Virginia farmers have helped contribute more than 1 million pounds of fresh produce to regional food banks this year.

Virginia animal control officers are receiving training on agriculture animal care standards that were approved by the 2011 General Assembly.

By 2012, McDonald’s will begin including apple slices in every Happy Meal, and the slices already are being phased in at many restaurants.

Cooler nights and crisp autumn air means it’s one of the best times of the year for Virginia families to visit the countryside and celebrate the harvest season. Between corn mazes, pick-your-own pumpkin patches, apple orchards, fall festivals and winery events, there’s plenty of agritourism opportunities in the Old Dominion.

That PB&J sandwich soon could cost you more.

Baked, carved, roasted or stewed, Virginia pumpkins are plentiful this time of year.

U.S. sheep producers are being encouraged to increase their herds, their lamb birthrates and the number of lambs they harvest.

This year, Virginia Farm Bureau’s booth at the State Fair of Virginia is returning to its roots.

Ripe, juicy, fresh and delicious—Virginia apples are in season and ready to be picked.

American farmers have doubled their corn production from 1980 to 2010 using less fertilizer.

A website that celebrates U.S. farms operated by the same family for 100 years or more has launched.

Shoppers at farmers’ markets enjoy the freshness, taste and quality—and simplicity—of local produce and meats straight from the farm.

More than 30 Virginia farmers and rural businesses applied for the most recent offering of federal grants to increase fuel efficiency and/or install alternative energy sources. And for the first time this year, alternative energy projects are dominating the grant requests.

According to recently released survey findings of a Tennessee-based advertising and marketing agency, American consumers shop more often for food with labels that read “natural,” “organic” or “grown in the USA.”

With at least 17 states seeing 100-degree and hotter temperatures in July and August, electric bills are not the only household expenses that are likely to climb.

Fairfax County has more than a million residents, and four-story townhome complexes line many of its major roadways. Yet the local 4-H program held its 63^rd annual fair Aug. 6 and 7 at Frying Pan Farm Park.