The Tidewater Soil and Water Conservation District announced last week that it has chosen to present Owen and Chris Pointer of Pointer Bros. Inc. of Gloucester with its 2024 Clean Water Farm Award.
Owen and Chris Pointer are fourth- and fifth-generation farmers who both grew up on the farm, according to a Tidewater SWCD release. Owen took over full-time management of the incorporation in 2018, about the same time his son, Chris, joined him full-time to assist with farm operations. Before they took over, Owen’s father, William Joseph, and his uncle, James “Jimmy,” had co-owned Pointer Bros. Inc. and they had incorporated it in 1997. Hence the name, Pointer Brothers.
Riverview Farm, as the home farm is known, sits on the banks of the York River in Gloucester County. Owen recalled his grandfather, Michael Harvey Pointer, growing potatoes there. After several years of just breaking even, he realized being a potato farmer was not for him. The farm was then turned into a flower farm that gre...