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New Jersey Farm Bureau News

Ag Matters Online

(SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP) – New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher today visited Specca Farms in Springfield Township in Burlington County to highlight the Jersey Fresh strawberry picking season.

“Strawberries are one of the first fruits of the New Jersey growing season and signal that many more Jersey Fresh produce items are on the way,” Secretary Fisher said.  “Jersey Fresh strawberries are picked ripe and the taste is second to none.  If you want them, now is the time as the season will come to a close in a few weeks.”

Click here for the complete story from the NJ Department of Agriculture.

New Jersey Farm Bureau will hold its 100th annual meeting on Monday-Tuesday, November 12-13 at The Princeton Westin at Forrestal Village in Princeton, NJ.

Election of officers and presentation of the annual financial report will take place at the Annual Business Meeting after lunch on November 13 (Tuesday). Officer positions subject to election this year are president and second-vice president.

The annual banquet will be held Monday evening, November 12 at 7:00 pm, with special recognition of the organization’s centennial anniversary. All Farm Bureau members are cordially invited and welcome to attend the banquet and any portion of the convention.  If you plan to join us for any of the meal functions, please reserve them ASAP!  Because we are celebrating our centennial, we expect a larger than normal crowd, and could sell out.

For details about meals, speakers and hotel accommodations, please visit our NJFB Annual Meeting page, by clicking here.

Click here for the annual meeting agenda.

NJ Farm Bureau is excited to announce that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has accepted our invitation and will be attending our 100th Annual Banquet on Monday, November 12! AFBF President Zippy Duvall will also be joining us.

 

This is shaping up to be a great centennial celebration, and all members are welcome! Call the Farmhouse (609-393-7163) to reserve your banquet tickets today!

US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue

AFBF President Zippy Duvall

On August 27th the Farm Service Agency announced details of the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) to assist farmers with the economic effects of retaliatory tariffs on their bottom line. The New Jersey Farm Service Agency will be holding informational meetings throughout New Jersey to educate farmers about MFP and to allow them to sign up for the program. For more information on MFP, including eligible crops and initial payment rates click here or see the MFP Fact Sheet by clicking here.

Please note: Beginning September 4th of this year, MFP applications will be available online at www.farmers.gov/mfp. Producers will also be able to submit their MFP applications in person, by email, fax, or by mail.

FSA will be taking applications at each meeting and you may apply at the event even if you are not serviced out of that office. We recommend, but do not require, that you bring with you verifiable or reliable production evidence for eligible crops for which harvest has been completed (i.e. wheat)

Meeting Information:

North Jersey: Wednesday, September 12th at 9:00 AM

Central Jersey: Thursday September 13th at 7:30 PM

South Jersey: Tuesday, September 18th at 9:00 AM 

Questions:
For information contact your
local office if you have any questions. 

Farming makes New Jersey a better place in many ways. One is obvious during this early part of the harvest season, when residents can indulge in fresh and locally grown blueberries, peaches and soon tomatoes. Those are highlights on many people’s annual food calendars.

Add many vegetables and the apples and cranberries to come and there’s enough good food grown to make farming the third-largest industry in the state, with much of it here in South Jersey.

Farms counterbalance the spreading urban landscape and give the state a pleasant mixed character. Even though people live in the fourth smallest and most densely populated state, they are never far from counties with a rural flavor.

Read the rest of the opinion piece from the Press of Atlantic City by clicking here.

Farmers face huge challenges from nature, and they accept that. Weather can freeze a crop in the bud, parch it in a drought or drown it with too much rain.

But farmers in New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the nation, say the biggest problem they face is interference from nonfarmers. They voted it their No. 1 issue at the 2017 New Jersey Farm Bureau annual meeting.

Click here to read the rest of the story from the Press of Atlantic City.

BRIDGETON — Two new greenhouses at the nonprofit Mill Creek Urban Farm will soon be filled with towering tomato and cucumber plants, grown hydroponically to provide year-round produce to food pantries, senior centers, restaurants and schools.

Built with a $250,000 grant from the TD Charitable Foundation, they officially opened last week. The farm is on the 5-acre site of a former public housing project on Ronald Bowman Way, which used to be called Mill Street.

Click here to read the rest of the story from the Press of Atlantic City.

 

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez holds a slim four-point lead over his likely Republican opponent, former pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin, as he seeks reelection following his corruption trial,  according to a new poll.

Menendez, a Democrat seeking a third term, received the support of 28 percent of registered voters, while 24 percent said they would vote for Hugin, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University survey. Forty-six percent are undecided.

Click here to read the rest of the story from Observer.com