Sponsored by:
Assemblyman P. CHRISTOPHER TULLY
District 38 (Bergen and Passaic)
Assemblywoman LINDA S. CARTER
District 22 (Middlesex, Somerset and Union)
Assemblyman ROY FREIMAN
District 16 (Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Park
SYNOPSIS
Establishes “Vertical Farming in Higher Education Grant Program”; appropriates $250,000.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing a “Vertical Farming in Higher Education Grant Program,” supplementing Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes, and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. There is established in the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education the “Vertical Farming in Higher Education Grant Program.” The purpose of the program shall be to support public institutions of higher education that use, or plan to use, vertical farming techniques to grow food for use or sale at student dining venues or for distribution through campus food banks or food pantries. The Secretary of Higher Education shall, after consultation with the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, award grants to public institutions of higher education to defray the costs, either in whole or in part, associated with developing or maintaining a vertical farming system.
b. A public institution of higher education may apply to the secretary for a grant. The application shall include information on the type of vertical farming system maintained, or planned, by the institution and how produce grown through the system is to be used or distributed. The grants shall be awarded in amounts determined by the secretary.
c. As used in this section, “vertical farming” is the practice of growing produce in vertically stacked layers and may use soil, hydroponic, or aeroponic growing methods.
2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education the sum of $250,000 to effectuate the provisions of this act.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes in the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education the “Vertical Farming in Higher Education Grant Program.” The bill also appropriates $250,000 from the General Fund to the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education to effectuate the bill’s purposes.
Under the bill, the grant program will support public institutions of higher education that use, or plan to use, vertical farming techniques to grow food for use or sale at student dining venues or for distribution through campus food banks or food pantries. The bill directs the Secretary of Higher Education to, after consultation with the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, award grants to public institutions of higher education to defray the costs, either in whole or in part, associated with developing or maintaining a vertical farming system.
The bill provides that a public institution of higher education may apply to the secretary for a grant. The application is required to include information on the type of vertical farming system maintained, or planned, by the institution and how produce grown through the system is to be used or distributed. The grants will be awarded in amounts determined by the secretary.
“Vertical farming” is defined under the bill as the practice of growing produce in vertically stacked layers and may use soil, hydroponic, or aeroponic growing methods.