{"id":984,"date":"2016-01-18T21:59:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T21:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/notesnletters.com\/?p=984"},"modified":"2016-01-18T21:59:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T21:59:03","slug":"new-directions-for-family-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/?p=984","title":{"rendered":"New directions for family farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_986\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-986\" style=\"width: 224px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/notesnletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/103-e1453154235858.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-986\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-986\" src=\"http:\/\/notesnletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/103-e1453154235858-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/103-e1453154235858-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/103-e1453154235858-768x1026.jpg 768w, https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/103-e1453154235858-766x1024.jpg 766w, https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/103-e1453154235858-1200x1604.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/103-e1453154235858.jpg 1712w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 85vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donald Virts shows tomatoes in his greenhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Virts family has been engaged in traditional farming (think heavy equipment, rigid growing seasons and cornfields stretching for acres) since it settled in Loudoun County in the late 18th century. Twelve generations later, things are beginning to change.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Virts, who farms 1,000 acres in northern and western Loudoun, decided that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/loudoun-farmer-changes-growing-methods-to-meet-demands-of-the-times\/2016\/01\/15\/8c7ed1e2-bb93-11e5-829c-26ffb874a18d_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">he had to adapt his methods to evolving economic and environmental conditions<\/a>. His new business model, which he is introducing at CEA Farms north of Purcellville, embraces concepts such as hydroponics (growing crops in water), controlled environment farming, renewable energy sources and marketing directly to consumers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/loudoun-farmer-changes-growing-methods-to-meet-demands-of-the-times\/2016\/01\/15\/8c7ed1e2-bb93-11e5-829c-26ffb874a18d_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Full story&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Washington Post, January 17, 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Virts family has been engaged in traditional farming (think heavy equipment, rigid growing seasons and cornfields stretching for acres) since it settled in Loudoun County in the late 18th century. Twelve generations later, things are beginning to change. Donald Virts, who farms 1,000 acres in northern and western Loudoun, decided that he had to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/?p=984\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;New directions for family farm&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[63,18,67,3,129],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-agriculture","tag-business","tag-economic-development","tag-loudoun-county","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notesnletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}