Fauquier County, Virginia.
The first phase begins with approximately 271 acres across three adjoining properties - Leeds Manor Road, Misty Meadows Lane, and Railstop Road - in and around the historic village.
Farm counts and acreage from the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture county profile; population is a recent estimate.
Four reasons this ground is the right ground.
A genuinely working farm county
Fauquier is not farmland in name only. More than a thousand farms operate here, split roughly evenly between crops and livestock, poultry and products - which means new methods can be tested beside neighbors who will tell us honestly whether they pencil out.
One hour from Washington, D.C.
The county sits between Washington and Charlottesville in the rolling Virginia Piedmont, at the foot of the Blue Ridge. Researchers, policymakers, executives, and school groups can reach the farm and be back the same day.
An existing destination economy
The surrounding area already draws visitors for vineyards, horse country, and rural tourism. Our events business builds on a market that exists rather than trying to invent one.
A rail village with history to reclaim
The village near Delaplane in the county's northwest grew up as a stop on the rail corridor. Guests can arrive by passenger rail toward Northern Virginia today, and restored service to the village is a long-term ambition.
This village should not have to choose between preservation and relevance.
Fauquier County has spent decades defending its farmland, with conservation easements and a purchase-of-development-rights program that let landowners keep working ground in agriculture. Farm acreage has still been slipping. Protection alone cannot hold a rural economy together; the land also has to earn.
Our objective is to use agriculture, research, education, commerce, and tourism to create enough economic gravity to preserve the character of the village while restoring its relevance - good jobs, young farmers who can afford to stay, and buildings with a reason to be maintained.
Over the longer term that may include pursuing formal incorporation and helping establish a larger city structure in which the historic village keeps a distinct identity alongside nearby communities such as Delaplane. That is a ten- to twenty-year civic objective, not something the initial business model depends on. The commercial and research institution has to succeed first.
The food chain won't fix itself. People fix it.
Every dollar goes into land, seed, animals, and the researchers and young farmers doing the work in Fauquier County. Give what's meaningful to you: or bring your company in as a founding partner.