State fair fundraiser is off mark to use fake trees

The NJ State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show recently sent a plea for donations for their holiday “Festival of Trees” fundraiser. When I read the fine print, something seemed terribly amiss with their program. I personally spent 30 years actively involved with the fair. Among other things, I ran a local Christmas tree display at the fair during all those years. For the last three years, the New Jersey Christmas Tree Growers Association has been running their own statewide display there. For 10 years of my work with the fair, I chaired the Bylaws Committee which, in its desire to continue the decades-long association with the farming community, set in writing that the primary goal of the fair is to support agriculture in all its forms. For that reason, I was appalled that the fair is violating its own bylaws and has centered their latest fundraiser around plastic fake trees (almost certainly manufactured in communist China) rather than real American grown Christmas Trees. By far, fake trees are the biggest threat facing Christmas tree growers. On my visits to the fair in August, I’ve never seen plastic flowers in the greenhouse. Nor have I seen bowls of plastic tomatoes in the vegetable display. They have real horses in the main ring. I doubt they’ve considered ceramic imitations. But who knows? Maybe all these things are in the planning stage at the NJ State Fair. I have repeatedly asked the fair to reconsider their ill-conceived plans to harm an important segment of NJ agriculture. They have not responded and the Festival of (fake) trees will go on. The fair had numerous options for a fundraiser. But they chose one that directly harms agriculture. The NJ State Fair needs to understand that. If an organization supposedly dedicated to farming purposely and willfully violates its very own bylaws and damages the future prospects of agriculture, then every individual farmer should be concerned. Today it is an attack on Christmas tree farms. What crop or commodity will be next? What farm will be safe from future attacks? Michael Garrett Shale Hills Farm Sussex