Meeting with the Board of Agriculture



Earlier in the semester I went with Dr. McLean to attend the New Jersey Board of Agriculture Meeting that was being held during the New Jersey State Agriculture Convention in Atlantic city, NJ. During this meeting representatives from different agricultural industries in New Jersey, from Equestrians to Aquaculture, discussed different advances an issue facing their respective industries.


Individuals from the seven agricultural pathways were present during the meeting and each representative got a chance to discuss the issues related to their area of expertise. Through discussing the issues, they face in person the different representatives were able to brainstorm different ideas for how they can solve their individual problems. This is due mostly to the fact that while the representatives may know their specific industry the best, the other representatives will bring different perspectives into the issue that is being faced.


This willingness to work together and share ideas is key to the future of agriculture in not only New Jersey and the United States but the rest of the world as well. While it is arguably the most important field relatively few individuals work in agriculture in the United States. Overall a fairly small percentage of people work in or live near agriculture this leads to a disconnect in the general population where agriculture is involved. On suggestion was made to help alleviate this disconnect and get new people involved in agriculture.


Many people are interested in agriculture, however, not everyone has the resources to learn how to be effective in the agriculture field of their choice. At the same time many individuals in the different agricultural fields are getting to the point in their lives where they would like to retire. These individuals often sell their business to an interested individual or company then move on towards their retirement. During the meeting the idea of mentoring was brought up, this mentoring would be a bit different from what is normally thought of as mentoring. The individuals who are ready to get out of the business could lease their property to an interested individual for a set time period. During this time period the property/business owner would teach the individual leasing their property/business the ins and outs of their industry. Once the lease term is up the new individual is now the owner and has a general idea of how the industry works.


This was just one of the ideas brought up during the meeting and I feel that if implemented well this could be incredibly effective. This system could lead to a smooth turnover to the next generation of agricultural business owners. While this system may not be implemented it does open the door to the question of what should we do to help adults who want to get into the agriculture industry? Is there a way, besides attending college classes, that we can easily help individuals to become more involved?
Additionally, how can we make the already existing resources more readily available to the general population who may not know where to look for them?

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