Agriculture

Promote climate-friendly practices by creating additional incentives and technical assistance to help farmers implement practices that improve soil health, sequester carbon and increase organic matter, such as:
1. Adding funding to the State Agriculture Development Commission stewardship program (stewardship practices include adding compost, implementing meaningful soil protection standards for preserved farmland, promoting the use of untreated and organic seed, transition to less chemically-dependent farmland, adoption of no-till and reduced-tillage practices, incorporating regenerative agriculture practices and implementing manure management practices to decrease emissions)
2. Developing a program where farmers can get free technical support from the Rodale Institute to implement positive agricultural practices

Release report, based on ongoing listening sessions (including in environmental justice communities), provide guidance and implement relevant administrative actions to identify appropriate locations for warehouses and other goods movement facilities.
1. Building up, rather than out (“high cube” warehouses)
2. Require warehouses to be solar- and green-roof ready
3. Enabling more goods to be shipped by rail
4. Prioritize heavy- and medium-duty trucks and port equipment for vehicle electrification and establish “zero-emission zones” in port areas
5. Prohibiting the siting of warehousings on prime agricultural land

Ensure “Jersey Fresh” programs assists with marketing new farm products, including organic grains.

Permanently protect additional lands in the Highlands and Pinelands regions, which provide clean drinking water to more than 75 percent of the state.

Preserve approximately 315,000 acres of additional farmland and promote sustainable agricultural business practices to ensure a sustainable agricultural industry, including utilizing federal funding from the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and other Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Uphold policies that limit non-agricultural commercial development on preserved farms and limit buildings and other impervious surfaces to ensure minimal impact on farming activities and soil health.

Continue to robustly and consistently fund farmland preservation through federal, state and local programs, with a focus on access and ownership of land for minority, young and beginning farmers, and indigenous tribes. Grow and promote LandLink program to include minority farmers, as well as new farmers, interested in selling or leasing land for agriculture.

Support New Jersey representation on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) advisory committee on urban agriculture, part of a broader effort to focus on the needs of urban farmers.

Announce implementation of the September 2019 DEP’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council (EJAC) report titled Urban Agriculture in the Garden State. The work of several “urban agriculture practitioners,” the white paper “addresses factors that may impact the development of urban agriculture within the State of New Jersey, perceived barriers and recommendations for addressing each barrier.”