When Suffolk farmer Joe Barlow learned special honors would be given to someone at the Virginia Agricultural Council meeting he attended this week, he wondered who it was.

His wife, Lynn, didn’t have to wonder. She already knew the recognition was for her husband.

The council surprised Barlow with a citation signed by the governor “for more than 50 years of outstanding and exemplary public service to the agriculture industry and to our Commonwealth of Virginia.”

“I was kind of surprised,” Barlow said.

Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Matthew Lohr presented the award, listing Barlow’s many public service accomplishments.

“Some of it I had forgotten,” Barlow said. “But I couldn’t argue with any of them.”

Barlow is perhaps best known locally as a former City Councilman who also served on the School Board and Planning Commission before that.

But his contributions to agriculture statewide have been more wide-ranging.

“The main thing is, I was still a farmer,” Barlow said. “My vocation came first, and all the rest sort of piggybacked on it.”

He moved to Suffolk in 1959 and bought a large farm just outside the Chuckatuck area. He raised hogs and beef cattle for many years but downsized when his first wife died.

“We went out of the hog business temporarily, but we never did get back into it,” he said.

Crops he raised throughout the years included peanuts, cotton, soybean and corn. He says he’s retired now, having passed the farm to son Joseph and daughter-in-law Shelley.

“I’m very proud of the way he and Shelley have run the farm,” Barlow said. “I get out there and get in the way. As soon as I realize I’m bothering them, I get out of the way.”

His contributions to the state agricultural community are numerous. He is a member of the Virginia Agricultural Council and has been on the Virginia Agribusiness Council, the Virginia Extension Advisory Council, Virginia Peanut Growers Association and Virginia Corn Growers Association, the Virginia Pork Commission, Virginia Agricultural Development Authority, Virginia Agricultural Credit Committee and the Suffolk Farm Service Agency County Committee.

The crowning achievement in his agricultural service career, though, was being on the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services. He even served as its president for a time, and by virtue of that position was on the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

“I still think of that as a lot of responsibility there,” Barlow said. “I don’t know how much effect I had on it, but I supported some progressive things, I think.”

He also served as the agricultural representative on the Virginia Toxic Substances Advisory Council, which studied the issue of pollutants in the James River. Aside from his governmental service locally, he also has served on Suffolk Tomorrow, the Chuckatuck Ruritan Club, the Suffolk Nansemond Historical Society and other organizations.

Though he is officially retired, Barlow still keeps up with the agricultural world so he can continue serving.

“You have to stay up on modern methods and trends,” he said. “I still try to do that. It’s not as easy as it once was.”

He said he appreciated the recognition from the agricultural department.

“It was a nice tribute,” he said. “I don’t know that I deserve it, but I appreciate them doing it.”