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5.01.2008
By KEVIN GEORGE
Editor
EASTON, Md. — The president of American Farm Publications said he is encouraged with the response the company has received in an effort to show its support for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
The eight-inch, green magnetic ribbon — designed for attaching to vehicles — with “Save New Jersey Agriculture” in wheat-colored letters went on sale on April 10 had already sold more than 150 at $4 apiece in just two weeks.
“The feedback from the farmers in New Jersey has been wonderful concerning our magnetic bumper ribbons,” Marc Van Pelt said. “I am a little surprised, however — and in hindsight I shouldn’t be. Jersey farmers have always been active and have shown great pride in their products. Our cost for the ribbons is just to cover shipping. We are in it for the long haul along with our brothers and farmers to the north.”
Non-New Jersey residents have also ordered them. One farmer from Westminster, Md., told an AFP representative that “We all need to support each other.”
Van Pelt said the issue in New Jersey is a personal one for him.
“One of my first jobs at AFP Inc., was to sell advertising in New Jersey for The New Jersey Farmer newspaper,” he said. “I have some fond memories of my selling days and still have some real good friends up there.”
Bruce Hotchkiss, senior editor of American Farm Publications Inc., is, by his own description, a New Jersey farm boy — and the issue is a personal one for him, too.
He grew up on Mulhocaway Farm, a 1,000-acre Guernsey dairy operation just outside of Clinton in Hunterdon County. The farm was purchased by the state, under eminent domain, in the 1950s and inundated by the waters of the Mulhocaway and Spruce Run creeks to form what is today Spruce Run Reservoir.
Hotchkiss said he is both angered and saddened by what he calls “Gov. Corzine’s lamentable effort to abandon agriculture, and its farmers in New Jersey.”
“I am angry because Corzine himself is a farm boy and should know better. You don’t abandon your roots,” he said. “I am saddened because the whole scheme reminds me of watching the waters flood the farm and seeing 1,000 acres of prime bottomland abandoned by the state.
“If Mulhocaway Farm could arise from the depths, like Phoenix from the ashes, every piece of equipment would don a magnet to demand “Save New Jersey Agriculture.”
Van Pelt said American Farm Publications — based in Easton, Md., and is the parent company to The Delmarva Farmer and The New Jersey Farmer — has offered similar promotions in the past to support agricultural-related causes.
“When the pfiesteria fiasco hit the chicken farmers of Delmarva, we made up a magnetic bumper sticker that read ‘Fear no Farmers’ and it was a tremendous success,” Van Pelt said, referring to a conflict Maryland poultry farmers had with then-Gov. Parris Glendening in the middle- to late-1990s. “Also, and this is no way a comparison, we searched high and low after 9/11 for small American flags. We found one store that had about 500 and we bought them all and gave them out for free to anyone who wanted one.
“When issues come to the forefront, we at American Farm Publications like to lead the way for a good cause.”
The magnets can be ordered by phoning 1-800-634-5021 or by e-mailing megan@americanfarm.com and putting “Ag Magnet” in the subject line.