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New Jersey Farm Bureau News

Ag Matters Online

PRESS RELEASE: NJ Farm Bureau Opposes $15 Minimum Wage Proposal

16 May 2016, Posted by admin in Economics and Prices, News, State News

***For Immediate Release***

NJ Farm Bureau Opposes $15 Minimum Wage Proposal – Cites Unique and Severe Impacts to Agricultural Industry

 

(Trenton) – New Jersey Farm Bureau, the state’s largest agricultural organization, opposes the $15 minimum wage proposal (S-15) heard in by the Senate Labor Committee today.

 

Farm Bureau President Ryck Suydam presented testimony as well as individual farm profiles showing the potentially devastating effects such a major increase would have on some New Jersey farms. “The immediate impacts of such a change for some farms would range from $100,000 up to $300,000,” said Suydam. “Because farmers are price-takers, not price-makers, they would be handcuffed by this – unable to pass along the state mandated cost increase.”

 

The impact of a large wage increase will have a greater impact on agriculture because farming is such a labor intensive business. In the farm profiles shared with the committee, the payroll share of farm expenses was 38%. A recent survey of the nursery sector of New Jersey agriculture shows that figure to be 40% of total farm expenses.

 

Other states, and previous New Jersey legislatures, have recognized agriculture’s uniqueness and treated the industry differently when it comes to minimum wage. “Seventeen other states have a separate agriculture minimum wage,” Suydam said, adding that most recently, New York state created a two-tier approach to their wage increase in recognition of the disproportionate impact to rural industries. The New Jersey Legislature itself provided a grant program in the 1990’s to help farmers cope with a minimum wage increase.

 

Suydam added, “New Jersey has a history of recognizing that farming is particularly vulnerable to certain policy initiatives and has developed special programs and rules to maintain and grow this $1.3 billion wholesale industry. This is yet another one of those situations.”

 

 

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Contacts: Ben Casella or Ed Wengryn – 609-393-7163

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PRESS RELEASE: NJDEP’s Proposed Revisions to Highlands Rules Get it Right

21 Apr 2016, Posted by admin in News, Science and Environmental Issues, State News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: Ed Wengryn -or- Helen Heinrich; 908-568-4939 or 609-393-7163

NJDEP’s Proposed Revisions to Highlands Rules Get it Right

(TRENTON) — New Jersey Farm Bureau (NJFB), the state’s largest organization of farmers and landowners, is pleased to see the positive changes that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is proposing in Septic Density rules for the Highlands.

“One of the most positive changes we see is the reduction in lot sizes and the alignment of the Highland septic density rules with the Highlands regional master plan”, said Ryck Suydam, president of New Jersey Farm Bureau. “The old septic density model was based on arbitrary science and the simple land use classifications of forested or non-forested lands. The new rule is based on sound, peer-reviewed science and links septic density with the Highlands region’s three land use capability planning zones…protection, conservation and existing community. These changes also help protect landowner equity in the region, which is crucial to the welfare of the agricultural industry,” he added.

Farm Bureau is also supportive of the use of greater data sets in establishing background nitrate levels for the three capability planning zones.

“New Jersey Farm Bureau first challenged NJDEP in 2005 when it proposed emergency rules for water quality in the Highlands. One of the complaints was the limited use of data to establish background water quality standards. This rule proposal reflects the use of greater data,” said Suydam.

Through the development of the Highlands Regional Master Plan and the corresponding NJDEP rules, New Jersey Farm Bureau supported the use of sound science to ensure that the rules reflect the real world conditions in the Highlands region and permit the council and its constituent municipalities to take advantage of planning tools that balance growth with natural resource protection. This new rule proposal does just that.

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