A veteran Virginia Farm Bureau volunteer leader and a champion of private property rights received 2011 Distinguished Service to Farm Bureau and Distinguished Service to Agriculture Awards Nov. 30 at the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in Norfolk.
Retired VFBF board member Robert Hall, the recipient of the Distinguished Service to Farm Bureau Award, raises corn, wheat, soybeans and oysters on 500 acres in Virginia’s Northern Neck region, as well as 1,500 acres of timber. A Farm Bureau member for 33 years, he served on the VFBF board from 1995 to 2010, representing producer members in the counties of Caroline, Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland.
Hall is a past president and board member of the Northumberland-Lancaster County Farm Bureau and past chairman of the VFBF Soybean & Feed Grains Advisory Committee and Grain Marketing Advisory Committee.
“Rob’s support for area farmers is well-known,” said VFBF President Wayne F. Pryor. “He served them well by representing them in many important battles, such as working to bring reasonable environmental regulations for farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“He also was a passionate spokesman for the need to reform the estate tax at both the national and state levels,” Pryor said.
Hall is a former owner and operator of a trucking business, a member of the Virginia Small Grain Check-off Board and the Virginia Agricultural Council Board, and treasurer and past president of the FFA Young Farmers of Northumberland County.
Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, has represented Harrisonburg and the counties of Page, Rappahannock, Rockingham, Shenandoah and Warren in the Virginia General Assembly since 2003. The Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award recipient represents one of the most agriculturally productive districts in the commonwealth.
“Since being elected to the state Senate, Sen. Obenshain has been a true champion for property rights,” Pryor said. “In 2007, he was a chief patron of legislation that reformed Virginia’s eminent domain laws in response to the controversial Kelo v. City of New London, Conn. decision in the U.S. Supreme Court.
“In the 2011 General Assembly he was at the forefront of the battle for property owners to get protections enshrined in our state constitution with the first passage of House Joint Resolution 693,” Pryor said.
Obenshain has a 100 percent voting record in support of VFBF policy issues while serving on the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources; Courts of Justice; Local Government; and Privileges and Elections committees, Pryor noted, and he consistently has been endorsed by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation AgPAC.
Farm Bureau has turned to Obenshain for his support on complicated issues like reasonable water quality regulations, he added, “and he constantly seeks out Virginia Farm Bureau’s position to help better serve the farmers in the 26th District.”
Obenshain is a founder of the Harrisonburg- and Charlottesville-based law firm Lenhart Obenshain PC. He has served on James Madison University’s board of visitors and in 1994 served on then-Gov. George Allen’s Commission on Citizen Empowerment, which made recommendations for reforming Virginia’s welfare programs.
With more than 150,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to protecting Virginia’s farms and ensuring a safe, fresh and locally grown food supply.