Two New Jersey companies, whose commercial start got a boost from Rutgers NJAES, were among the winners of Edible Jersey magazine’s 2013 Local Hero awards. First Field, a company that sells ketchup made from local tomatoes, was recognized as the Local Hero Food Artisan. First Field is among the New Jersey businesses to be incubated […]
Commercial Agriculture
Army Vet’s Interest in Food and Health Leads to Major in Ag and Food Systems
After serving in both Afghanistan and Iraq, Army veteran Matthew Smith came to realize the connection between food and health when he improved his own health through healthy eating. To fulfill his new interest in food and agriculture, he enrolled as an agriculture and food systems major at SEBS. Read about his journey from the […]
Sustaining Farming on the Urban Fringe: High Farmland Value, Low Farmland Rent
The amount of capital needed to invest in farming is often a barrier for prospective farmers, especially with New Jersey’s high land values. Land leasing is a viable option for keeping more farmland in production. Read in this issue of Sustaining Farming on the Urban Fringe how land leasing benefits more than just landowners and […]
Agricultural Agent Jerry Frecon Retires After a Fruitful Career
Jerome “Jerry” L. Frecon, who served the New Jersey fruit industry for the past 31 years as an agricultural resource management agent and county department head for Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County, retired in December 2012. His career as a pomologist spanned 46 years and focused on tree fruits, small fruits and nuts. Frecon […]
Rutgers Leads Multi-Million USDA Grant to Fight Stink Bugs
The brown marmorated stink bug is a highly invasive pest that has caused significant agricultural losses in the Mid-Atlantic states and is spreading to Southern and Mid-Western states as well, since its discovery in the U.S. in the mid-1990s. Native to Japan, China, and Korea, this pest has caused significant damage in its adopted homeland […]
SEBS Undergraduates Conduct Animal Farm Tours
Tours of the Rutgers animal farm on the George H. Cook Campus have long delighted school children across New Jersey. Formerly conducted by the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture, for years located next to the farm, these tours are now run by undergraduate students in the Department of Animal Sciences. The tours feature sheep, goats […]
Silicon: An Essential Plant Nutrient?
Groundbreaking research demonstrates benefits on a variety of crops Silicon—we think of it in sand and as an abundant element like oxygen or aluminum in soils. In New Jersey, with beaches and sandy soil everywhere around us, how could silicon be an essential plant “nutrient,” in short supply? It turns out, not all silicon is […]
Professor Sarah Ralston Receives Fulbright to Teach and Conduct Research in Brazil
Sarah Ralston, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Rutgers, has been selected for a 2013-2014 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant. A member of the Animal Sciences faculty at Rutgers since 1989, Ralston plans to travel to Brazil next spring to offer a course in “Equine Nutrition” to veterinary and zootechnology students at the […]
The Strange World of U.S. Horse Meat Regulation
After the reports of possible traces of horse meat in IKEA’s famous meatballs in Europe, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was quick to point out that Americans need not worry. Horse meat isn’t brought into the country for human consumption…"It …
Rutgers Extension Faculty Play Key Role at NOFA-NJ Annual Conference
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey held its 23rd annual Food and Agriculture Winter Conference at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ, this January. Classes on a wide range of topics were presented to over 400 attendees, making it the largest NOFA-NJ Winter Conference, to date. The two-day conference featured 50 speakers, 10 […]
