In the late 1990s, leadership in the Virginia agriculture and forestry sector took note of two trends which will shape the future of agriculture in Virginia, namely, the loss of farm and forest businesses and the loss of Virginia’s working farm and forestlands to development. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe the challenge posed by these two trends, describe the strategies adopted by the 2000 and 2001 General Assemblies to deal with these challenges and to provide details of a model purchase of development rights (PDR) plan developed at the direction of the General Assembly.