Virginia farmers are being asked to voluntarily adopt conservation practices now in return for "safe harbor" from perhaps more rigorous state-mandated environmental regulations later. ....

State and environmental officials believe farmers will embrace it.

"It gives farmers the opportunity to have some greater level of flexibility in implementing the right program for his or her farm, and not having it be a more cookie-cutter approach that you might see by a state-mandated program," explained Ann Jennings, Virginia executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Jennings participated in the state's technical advisory committee that ...

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