Farm Tour Visits Winery, Oysters, Plant Center

COURT HOUSE – Fourteen individuals working in New Jersey’s farming and agribusiness who are participating in the state’s Agriculture Society’s Leadership Program toured Cape May County June 8, to discover problems first-hand, issues and solutions facing agricultural production, marketing, and finance. 
The men and women who are farmers or work in the agriculture business are halfway through a two-and-a-half-year-program aimed at helping them become “articulate, knowledgeable, skilled leaders who encourage positive action on key issues, policy, and economics to advance the state’s agricultural industry.”
According to program director Jennifer Matthews, the leaders applied to participate in the program, and after undergoing an interview and selection process, spend 35-40 days over the program period learning communications, marketing, advocacy and leadership skills.
They also meet with government representatives in Washington and Trenton. This was the fifth seminar for the program’s 10th class.
“We have about 200 alumni,” Matthews said, “who are part of a large networking group and also serve on some of the larger advocacy groups, such as the state Board of Agriculture.
“These men and women also become better leaders on their own farms, as they learn how to use technology and other methods so they can delegate some of the work and leave their farms to advocate.”
“Understanding issues and how to advocate,” is key according to Kristina Guttadora, executive director, New Jersey Agriculture Society. “That’s why the participants tour different parts of the state and meet with farmers and others in the agriculture business: to understand the issues.” This is the 21st year of the program.
County Farmers Produce Crops, Livestock, Programs
Cape May County farmers produce a wide range of crops, livestock, and farm programs according to Jenny Carleo, Agricultural, and Resource management agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cape May County.
Fruits and vegetables include herbs such as lavender, to orchard crops like pears, peaches, and beach plums, to small fruits such as blueberries, brambles, and grapes.
Field crops include corn, wheat, soybeans, barley and hay. Cut flowers, greenhouse and nursery crops, salt hay, turf/sod and Christmas trees are also grown.
“The majority of our farmers grow vegetables and fruits for direct market to consumers,” Carleo noted. Most of the farms are between 10-49 acres.
According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2012, there were 152 farms on 7,352 acres in the county, Carleo said. “In 2015, however, my office had 206 farmland-assessed farms in our database totaling over 11,400 acres. I believe that many of the county’s farms are not making enough income to be included in the Ag Census, or there may be a problem with the census data collection techniques.
“Since numbers of farms, farmers and acres are often the basis for arguments when shaping farm policy and farm assistance legislation; it is my opinion that farmers in Cape May County are under-represented due to this disparity in the official data.”
County farmers experience limited access to agricultural materials and services, such as equipment and supplies, continued Carleo.
“Many of our growers are very small and do not purchase large quantities of these items. This lack of demand makes our isolated area unattractive for business suppliers to offer or deliver products locally. The costs of farm production are thus increased due to higher shipping costs for necessary agricultural materials like pesticides, fertilizers and machinery parts. Significant time is also spent by local farmers in trying to avoid shipping costs when they choose (or need) to perform deliveries themselves.”
One of the reasons farms are smaller in size locally, according to Carleo, is because historically, agriculture was “heavily dependent on wholesalers and processors purchasing crops, predominately lima beans. With the immediate and unexpected exodus of these buyers in the 1990s, farmers had to rapidly diversify their crops and shift their efforts to direct marketing. Many farms did not survive this transition and thus sold off parcels to developers, retaining smaller parcels and downsizing to survive. The change in crop production and marketing dynamics led to the cultivation of fresh products to residents and vacationers.”
Tourism Industry Nature-based
The county’s lifestyle is centered around the tourism industry, which Carleo added is abundant with natural beauty and wildlife and, within a 20-minute drive in most cases, access to 30 miles of beach on the ocean side and even more shoreline on the Delaware Bay and “back bays” of the barrier islands.
In 2015, according to the state Department of Labor, the tourism industry employed over 40 percent of the county’s workers. “Nature-based tourism is a $544 million industry in the county,” Carleo said. “Tourism provides local farmers a tremendous opportunity to offer agritourism activities to visitors. Eighteen percent of visitors surveyed reported they visited one of the six wineries while on vacation in the county in 2015.”
The fastest growing sector of agriculture at present is the wine industry, she said, due to the county’s microclimate’s similiarity to the Bordeaux region of France.
Currently there are six wineries and eight grape growers in the county; one new winery is pending approval. The Agricultural Leaders group toured the Willow Creek Winery, West Cape May, to better understand the farmland preservation conflicts wineries face.
Oysters Re-Emerging
Aquaculture, specifically “Cape May Salt” oysters, is re-emerging with support from the state Department of Agriculture, specifically through its Aquaculture Developmental Zones in the Delaware Bay for oyster growers.
The first stop on the tour was at Betsy’s Cape Shore Salts, Court House, where the group visited oyster beds and got “an insider view of the Red Knot controversy from the oyster farmer’s perspective.”
They also toured the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center at Rutgers University, North Cape May, for a facility tour to see how oyster seed for “Cape May Salts” is developed, and how Rutgers supports the oyster industry.
Oyster farmers are wild-harvesters. They purchase oyster “seed,” plant them in mesh bags on cages (“racks”) in the bay, tend them for 18-24 months and then harvest them for sale. The oysters feed on the natural food found in the Bay waters.
According to Brian Harman, farm manager, Cape May Salt Oysters, oyster seeds are about two millimeters (the size of a grain of rice) and about 100,000 can fit in a bag.
As they grow, the oyster farmers keep them clean and maintain their welfare to ensure they are kept in the nutrient-dense bay waters. By the time they are market size, they have attained three inches or larger.
“The Cape May Salts are known for their white meat and shell,” Harman said. “They are a really high-quality oyster with a firmer meat, almost like whitefish. The salty water of the bay gives them their own taste.”
Cape May Salt Oysters is part of Atlantic Cape Fisheries, where Harman started working in 2010. They have over 1,000 racks.
“The biggest drawback (to farming in the bay) is the winds and rough water,” said Betsy Haskin, owner of Betsy’s Cape Shore Salts. She is a graduate of the Leadership Program and relies on the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center, which is affiliated with the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, a Rutgers facility that her father, the late Harold Haskin, founded. He was an expert on the ecology of marine mollusks. Her farm has about 200 racks.
Haskin and Harman believe Cape May Salts are a “better product, unique enough to differentiate itself from oysters in other states. There is a distinct flavor and meat quality.”
Haskin helped found the Cape May Oyster Growers Cooperative, dedicated to maintaining the quality and sustainability of the New Jersey oyster industry.
Do Oyster Farms Block Horseshoe Crabs?
A new issue for oyster farms is that of the survival of the Red Knot, which Carleo called “a high-profile conflict in the media.”
Some are concerned that the horseshoe crabs can’t float past the racks to lay their eggs because the racks block their passage.
If the crabs can’t lay eggs on shore, the Red Knots will be unable to feed on the eggs. Others have expressed concerns that the oyster farmers make “too much noise” or otherwise scare away the birds while eating.
Horseshoe crab eggs are important nourishment for the endangered Red Knots on their long journey from their Artic breeding grounds to Tierra del Fuego in southern South America, about 9,300 miles.
There are eight oyster farms in the southern Delaware Bay that collectively occupy about 10 acres distributed over two miles of shoreline, less than 2 percent of the 100 miles of shoreline containing Red Knot habitat and less than one percent of the acreage utilized by Red Knots during their stop-over to the Bay.
Areas of highest Red Knot use on New Jersey’s bayshore are found some 20 miles up the bay from the farms, according to Lisa Calvo, aquaculture program coordinator, Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory.
The Delaware Bay shorelines provide an “important habitat for migratory shorebirds, including the Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa), which was listed as threatened in 2015,” Calvo said. “Since that listing, the interplay measures aimed at protecting the Red Knot and their effect on the oyster aquaculture industry of New Jersey’s southern Delaware Bayshore has taken on critical focus.
“Oyster farming has not been identified as one of the many threats to the Red Knot,” Calvo pointed out. 
Primary threats include habitat degradation, loss of key food supplies and threats from climate change and sea level rise, according to Wikipedia.
Secondary threats, Calvo noted, include disturbance by vehicles, people, dogs, aircraft and boats; hunting in parts of South America, predation and oil spills and leaks.
“There is no evidence that the horseshoe crabs are damaged by the racks or can’t get to the shoreline to lay their eggs,” Harman noted. “How close can you get to any bird before they fly off? The farmers don’t use all-terrain vehicles; they don’t make noise to disturb the birds.”
Strict regulations, including the need for a federal permit, govern where the racks can be located and farmer’s permits on parcels leased from the state, are contingent upon compliance with the conservation methods.
“The racks have to be 300 feet from the shoreline and laid out in lines, like alleys,” explained Haskin, “to allow for the horseshoe crabs to float in and out with the tides so they can lay their eggs on the high-tide line.”
“The demand for Cape May Salts is huge,” Harman added. “We could easily double in size, but the birds have been placed ahead of the industry.”
Harman and Haskin said the oyster farmers want to protect the birds.
“There are ways we could work together to protect the Red Knots and oyster farmers,” Haskin added. “No one wants to cover the beach with racks. We could establish a sanctuary area for them, for example.”
“New Jersey’s commercial oyster aquaculture community has been responsive and proactive in the development and implementation of strategies to minimize conflicts with the Red Knots and other shorebirds,” Calvo said. “The industry has abided by conservation measures and worked with scientists, regulators and conservationists to advance an understanding of farm-Red Knot interaction.”
Tough to Start Up
There are multiple agencies designed to oversee the oyster industry and the regulations “sometimes conflict in a manner that makes cultivating shellfish very risky to the farmer,” Carleo said.
Harman said there were 11 agencies involved in permitting and regulating the industry and it can “take years to get started because things move very slowly.”
In addition, the state, which leases the land, has decided to limit the size of new grounds available for farming.
“Maryland and Virginia have a huge advantage because of the legislative push for the oyster farm industry,” Harman explained. “They have an endless array of back creeks which can be used for farming. We don’t have any tributaries approved, just the bay with lots of rough water. People who have their houses on the bay don’t want a farm in front of them either.”
“The state needs to invest in its infrastructure to open more waters and test the waters to be sure they are free from pollution and can support more oyster farms,” Haskin said. “That is one solution in theory that could help expand the industry and help farming.
“It doesn’t take a lot of money to start up,” Haskin said, “maybe $1,000. The big cost is the labor;  I’m out there every day about four to five  hours.”
“The trouble is getting into the business,” Harman added, “unless your family is an existing grower. There are changes in regulations every year, and you want to work and do the right thing, so you need to be on top of everything. Staying on top of the regulations and permits just takes up too much time because of all the agencies involved.”
When asked how much of a living it provides her, Haskin said, “I’m not getting rich. It’s a hard way to make a living. My husband was working, so he was providing the wages. Now he’s retired, and I do this because I love it.”
Overuse of Natural Resources
To close out the day, the Leadership Group visited the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Plant Material Center, Court House, where they toured the farm and facility and saw some solutions for natural resource conservation efforts and how the USDA helps save coastal communities from devastating storms through native plant development.
“Another issue important to county farmers is the concern for salt-water contamination of crops,” Carleo said. “The community is dependent on the tourism industry, but overuse of the natural resources could potentially cause farm failure in the future if land must be taken out of production due to lack of fresh water irrigation.
“Well water is at risk for salt-water contamination due to salt-water intrusion, which is a result of overuse of aquifers in regions where salt-water may contaminate underground fresh water,” she continued. “Additionally, due to the low elevation of the land, there are frequent storm surges and saltwater inundation, even of farms and irrigation ponds, during storm events. Both of these issues continue to rise in importance as the climate becomes increasingly erratic and as visitor populations and high water demand by residents continue to grow.”
Set Realistic Expectations
There are multiple pockets of artisan crafters in the county that often seek locally-grown or organic materials to include in their home-made products.
Carleo noted these included bread, soap, sea salt, preserves, beer, wine, floral arrangements, sheep and alpaca wool, honeybee goods and ice cream.
“Farmers in the county experience the benefits of high consumer demand for fresh, locally-grown products,” Carleo noted, “but the demand is currently higher than the farms can produce, mostly due to a lack of qualified labor. The county has the benefit of a long growing season and milder winters than most of the state, but our fresh water supply is at risk due to over-use.
“In my opinion, the most challenging issues for growers in the county is the lack of sufficient labor and lack of access to services/farm resources,” she continued.
“Although associating with tourism is a win-win for the wineries, traditionally wholesale growers are experiencing a learning curve when needing to transition to direct retail marketing.
“Buyers are often interested in supporting local farmers,” she noted, “so we need to continue to help farmers build these relationships while they have the opportunity. Sometimes the buyer needs to be educated on constraints of the agricultural practices, other times the seller needs to know how to educate the customer on having realistic expectations.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.