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SADC to Offer Workshop for Farmers
on New Opportunities in Farmland Preservation
 
For Immediate Release: March 2, 2000 Contact:

Hope Gruzlovic
(609)292-8896
hope.gruzlovic@ag.state.nj.us

     

The State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC) will host a special half-day workshop for farmland owners from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, April 11, to explain new developments in the Farmland Preservation Program that greatly expand opportunities for participation, Agriculture Secretary Art Brown announced. The workshop will be held at the National Conference Center at the Ramada Inn in East Windsor, Mercer County, in conjunction with American Farmland Trust's annual national conference on the purchase of agricultural conservation easements. "Thanks to the Garden State Preservation Trust Act signed by Governor Whitman last year, funding for farmland preservation has increased nearly four-fold," said Brown, who chairs the SADC. "This has enabled us not only to expand our traditional programs, but to offer new ones as well. As a result, there never has been a better time for farmland owners to seriously consider whether the program is the right choice for them." The workshop will explain how the Farmland Preservation Program works; the traditional and new preservation options; how farms are evaluated and valued; the benefits of entering the program; and how to get started in the preservation process. American Farmland Trust is the only private, nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protecting the nation's strategic agricultural resources. Founded in 1980, AFT works to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment.

The SADC administers New Jersey's Farmland Preservation Program. To register for the free workshop, contact the SADC at (609) 984-2504 by March 31.