West Virginia Code Chapter 8A. Land Use Planning § 8A-12-1. Legislative findings and purpose

(a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that agriculture is a unique “life support” industry and that a need exists to assist those agricultural areas of the state which are experiencing the irreversible loss of agricultural land.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide persons and other entities an opportunity to voluntarily protect agricultural land and woodland in order to:

(c) Further, it is the intent of the Legislature to establish a West Virginia agricultural land protection authority, hereinafter “authority”, to assist persons, other entities and counties to obtain funding from any source available to accomplish the purposes of the voluntary farmland protection programs.