Had a great visit to a local family farm in Howell, Monmouth County this week. Squankum Brook Farm is owned by my friend Betty and is a bedrock small business in the county.

Bill Spadea at Beyond Organic Growers
Bill Spadea at Beyond Organic Growers
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She has been fighting alongside local advocate Marc Parisi to make sure that the rural community in Howell is preserved, protected, and empowered to thrive.

As I explained in my remarks to the crowd at the farm, warehouse developers are not the enemy. They are also a critical and necessary element of our economy. The problem is the politicians that are crushing our local farms by overspending, over-regulation, and creating a crushing environment where the family farm can't survive.

Bill Spadea at Beyond Organic Growers
Bill Spadea at Beyond Organic Growers
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We need to fix this. Instead of spending money for One Space which will be essentially left to nature and used for hunting, farming, or economic development, we should be spending money to create tax incentives for farms to grow and prosper.

For example, why is the homestead of a small farm not given the tax exemption of the farming acres? I visited a farm in Burlington County recently and learned that the ten acres were subject to the farm assessment but the family paid full boat on the house. That makes no sense, this family of five makes the farm possible. At the very least they should be incentivized to keep generational farms going strong into the future.

SEE ALSO: It's time to focus on transportation and lower taxes

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So how do we protect our farms?

First, we need to apply the farm assessment to the homestead.

Second, we need to generate business for the farmers so they have a need to increase production. The state can launch several programs on day one. We have farm-to-table restaurants that do very well in New Jersey. Let's start farm to prison, farm to school, farm to police HQ, and farm to the Joint Base. All creating an opportunity for workers and students to eat healthier and generate income for local farmers.

We need to get back to teaching agriculture in our schools. Most kids today think that food comes from plastic packaging in the grocery store. Many of our micro-schools around the state are already doing this, it's time to integrate the studies into our public schools.

Items now too expensive for NJ so spend money on

Buzzfeed recently conducted a survey that asked folks what they're cutting back on in an effort to try and save money. Although not everything on that survey relates to New Jerseyans, the ones that mainly do are listed below.

Gallery Credit: Mike Brant

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own.

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