Abingdon Farmer Anthony Flaccavento has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the 9th Congressional district in southwest Virginia. The announcement took place at the Abingdon Farmers Market Pavilion. The pavilion is home to the Abingdon Farmers Market which Flaccavento helped develop.
Flaccavento is an organic farmer and owner of SCALE, Inc, a consulting firm that works to build sustainable local economies and food systems throughout the region and around the nation. Over the past 27 years, he has launched and managed a number of enterprises in the 9th district, ranging from a self-help home ownership program for lower income families to a food aggregation business that enables former tobacco farmers to raise produce, eggs and other products for sale to supermarkets, colleges and universities.
In announcing his candidacy, Flaccavento described his priorities including: “support for family farmers and small businesses, moving local communities from dependence on one or two industries to more diversified, self-reliant economies, greatly reducing the role of money in politics, and revamping fiscal and economic policies to create opportunities for the many, not just the few.”
If nominated Flaccavento would face incumbent Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith.
