NOFA-NJ Center for Working Lands
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ) approaches its work holistically, as befits an organization with deep roots in the sustainability movement. NOFA-NJ’s work addresses both the why and how of sustainable food systems in New Jersey, and is based on the belief that it will take appropriate public policies, skilled practitioners, and informed consumers to be fully realized. To address the why and how, NOFA-NJ will frame our work under a conceptual framework called the Center for Working Lands.
NOFA-NJ has always recognized that sustainable agriculture must address the economic, environmental, and social impacts of farming operations. We believe that sustainable and organic agriculture, at its best, supports the development of healthy communities connected through a web of relationships built around food. This community-based view stands in direct contradiction to a globalized food system organized around commodities and operated with little regard to environmental or social impact. Yet even with all this awareness, the challenge of expanding and supporting a sustainable organic local food system is enormous. But building a sustainable local food system is well worth the cost. It adds economic value to our open space and it demonstrates that public investments in a community food system can deliver multiple, personal and community benefits. These include vibrant rural economies, a renewed commitment to land stewardship and ecosystem management and a healthier relationship to food.
NOFA-NJ’s Center for Working Lands is a gathering place for ideas, innovations, and opportunities to build community-based food systems. Through NOFA-NJ and its partners, The Center for Working Lands will provide leadership, technical support and advocacy on issues related to the sustainable management of working lands and preservation of a true working landscape. New Jersey needs regionally appropriate models of environmentally and economically viable management of working lands. It is a logical and necessary extension of our state’s smart growth, open space and farmland preservation activities. Policy makers, planners, municipal governments, private and public landowners desperately need better information about the potential benefits of ecological agricultural management practices, and farmers need assistance in meeting the escalating demands of the regulatory community and the market place. We believe that the Center for Working Lands can meet these needs by creating a focus for education, advocacy and research in working lands management, by forging strategic partnerships to deliver services to target populations, and by strengthening public understanding of the multiple benefits of our working landscape and the potential of sustainable practices to enhance the quality of life, economic diversity and health of our rural and farm economies.
The Center for Working Lands will have three program components that include: an Agricultural Incubator, Community Agriculture Program, and Community Food Education Project.
NOFA-NJ proposed to establish an Agricultural Incubator program to prepare new, nontraditional or immigrant farmer populations to farm organically in New Jersey. The incubator program will offer an alternative point of entry for beginning farmers and provide them with access to land and to support services to enable them to develop the skills necessary to succeed. Appropriately, structured, it will improve the quantity and viability of new farm enterprises in the Garden State. Concurrently, the program will provide technical training, business development and market support to farmers enrolled in the program. NOFA-NJ is pleased to have the opportunity to initiate the Agriculture Incubator training program at Duke Farms.
The Community Agriculture Project will support the development of the infrastructure necessary to create and sustain locally-based food systems throughout the state. Work will focus on expanding statewide production of organic and sustainable food by working with existing farmers and landowners. Understanding the barriers and opportunities related to the current food production and supply chain issues by considering consumer demand, affordability, access to food, access to land, and innovative ag-business models is critical to developing an economically viable food system. Direct assistance activities will include farmer and landowner education, organic and sustainable farm planning and mentoring, providing farmers with access to land through public and private lands management arrangements, and supporting the creation of new farm businesses throughout the state. Work on a set of best practices for use by municipalities, regional planning agencies and NGO’s that are both site-specific and prescriptive will support the establishment or continuation of food production on public and private lands. Activities will include farmer educational events, expanded farmers communication and outreach, and on-farm consulting and planning.
The Community Food Education Project strengthens communities by educating diverse audiences about the human health, community, ecosystems and environmental benefits of supporting local sustainable food systems. Youth programs support that the creation of instructional organic garden classrooms at New Jersey schools and farm to school programs that improve nutritional habits through access to fresh produce create a new generations of healthy consumers. Adult education programs focus on expanding consumer knowledge and demand for local organic or sustainably produced foods. Activities such as our annual Winter Conference, Organic Victory Gardening School, regional Farmer-Chef meetings and networks, and community lectures and presentation provide opportunities for lifelong learning.
