Tuesday Morning, 10:00am - 12:00pm, there will be a statehouse rally in Trenton by New Jersey farmers
and their supporters to save the Agricultural Department.

Background:

Governor Corzine's budget proposal includes the elimination of the Department of Agriculture.
The rally will represent the farming set's loudest and most visible offensive.

Essential functions of the Depart of Agri:

- The NJDA oversees the hugely popular Jersey Fresh program that promotes locally grown produce and
serves as a model that other states are copying to promote their own produce. The current budget for
that program is $800,000. The governor proposes to slash that in half.

- The NJDA oversees the Child and Adult Nutrition Programs and School Lunch Commodity Distribution Program
that serve hundreds of thousands of needy New Jerseyans daily. Our Department of Agriculture is a national
leader in school nutrition programs, with 637,000 school lunch participants. Which department will this program
be moved to, and will it continue to be nationally recognized as one of the most successful?

- Through the State Agriculture Development Committee, chaired by the secretary of agriculture, New Jersey has
invested more than $1 billion since 1982 to permanently preserve more than 164,000 acres of farmland. 
What happens to this program? Who takes responsibility for preserving farmland and a farmer's right to farm,
if not the top advocate for the industry? Will another agency see farmland preservation as a priority? Or will this
once strong, proud program become forgotten? The irony in the governor's proposal is that taxpayers approved
funds to preserve farms.  Are those votes meaningless? Without a Department of Agriculture, we fear
the process will become a lesser priority until it's too late to save the "Garden."

- NJDA currently addresses pest infestations, such as gypsy moths, and Asian longhorned beetles. To whom
will municipalities turn in the event of outbreaks?

- The agriculture department will be moved to the DEP under Corzine's proposal.  The EPA has already ruled that
manure be classified as Superfund.  How will this classification interact with farming?  Many farmers and gardeners
still rightly use manure as fertilizer.  Many don't believe in using chemicals.  How will the Superfund classification
interfere with composting?