January 26, 2009

KARROW LEGISLATION CLARIFYING FARMERS' RIGHT TO SELL FIREWOOD ADVANCES LEGISLATION WOULD CLARIFY THAT FARMERS CAN SUPPLEMENT THEIR INCOME BY SELLING FIREWOOD EVEN IF IT COMES FROM ANOTHER SITE

The Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee advanced legislation today sponsored by Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow to clarify the state’s farming law so that a farm selling firewood could no longer be considered an industrial lumberyard.

“If we want New Jersey to remain the Garden State, we cannot harass farmers who need to find different ways to keep their farms afloat,” Karrow, R-Hunterdon and Warren, said. “Growing trees for firewood is agriculture and farmers have the right to sell that wood, whether obtained from their farms or another source.”

The legislation was prompted by a Mount Olive farmer who received a zoning violation for selling wood obtained off-site. His family had been doing so for decades, but the town’s zoning officer deemed it a logging operation and lumberyard.

“Selling firewood is no more a logging operation than baking a pie or painting a pumpkin,” Karrow said. “If our farming laws have any ambiguity, we must make them crystal clear so farming can continue to be an important part of our state’s tradition, culture and economy.”