New
Jersey's sweet potato growers have voted to overwhelmingly
to continue the state's Sweet Potato Commission
for another three years. Secretary of Agriculture
Arthur R. Brown, Jr. today announced that 82 percent
of sweet potato growers who returned the mail ballots
favored retaining the 33-year-old Commission, which
conducts promotional, marketing, advertising and
research programs on behalf of New Jersey's sweet
potato industry. "The results of the balloting
indicated that the sweet potato growers of New
Jersey realize the importance of this program,
and is indicative of their desire to have it continue," said
Brown, a member of the Commission. State law requires
approval by 65 percent of the voting growers representing
51 percent of the voting acreage, or vice versa,
to continue operation of the Commission. The affirmative
ballots represented 88.3 percent of the voting
acreage. The referendum is mandated every three
years. The Commission includes chairman Ben Patten,
a grower from Pilesgrove, Bruce Carlton, Dean of
Cook College, Rutgers University, and Agriculture
Secretary Arthur R. Brown, Jr. The Commission is
financed by a two-cent-per-bushel tax on all sweet
potatoes grown in New Jersey.
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