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NJ Agriculture Secretary cites farmland preservation gains, urges cross‑agency coordination

New Jersey Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee · February 12, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Secretary Ed Wingren told the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee the state has doubled farmland preservation interest after changing SADC valuation rules and urged coordination across agencies on food distribution, One Health and agrivoltaics pilots.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Wingren told the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee the Department of Agriculture is seeing renewed interest in preserving farmland after recent changes to valuation and funding practices.

Wingren, appearing as the department’s chief representative, said the State Agricultural Development Committee (SADC) altered how it values natural resources on farms—crediting woodlands and wetlands rather than penalizing them—which increased average offers roughly 35 percent and pushed purchases closer to 80–85 percent of appraised…

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