I was working the Union Square Greenmarket a couple of weeks ago, when a woman, probably in her late twenties said she wanted to be a farmer. Her husband was enmeshed in big business and they wanted out. She wanted to know how to go about it, and since we were there from Vermont, she figured there, or upstate New York was where she had to go. “I’m from New Jersey,” she said, “there are no farms there.”
The thing is, there are farms in New Jersey. There are farms everywhere, and farmers are retiring everywhere, leaving wide open land susceptible to development or purchase by the highest bidder.
We need to find the farmers, and find a way to keep the land in sustainable agricultural use.
Read this story about a retiring New Jersey farmer, published in the New York Times.
