The Press of Atlantic City
Friday, January 7, 2000
Small Business

N.J. Farm Program Cultivates Leaders
A lot of small business owners would like to better promote and network their firm, tackle issues related to their business, maybe even make the world a better place.

If only they worked in an industry that helped them take the lead, a forward-looking industry like…agriculture?

Yes, man’s oldest industry is doing just that in New Jersey: Preparing members to lead and lobby on issues relating to their growing businesses.

The N.J. Agricultural leadership Development Program is putting 20 people through several rounds of intensive leadership seminars over two years.

“The goal is for them to come out of the program being more knowledgeable and articulate so they can lobby for agriculture in the future,” said Mary Nikola, executive director of the program.

Although her full-time job is with Rutgers University, Nikola runs the program under the auspices of the New Jersey Agricultural Society, a non-profit group founded in 1781. It is funded mainly by another industry group, the N.J. Farm Bureau; Rutgers’ Cook College Cooperative Extension Service; and the state Department of Agriculture, Nikola said.

Participants meet six times a year for seminars lasting two or more days.

The first session last fall featured three days learning “communications skills”…making small talk, expressing themselves and influencing others,” she said.

Then last month, the group spent two days in Trenton meeting officials at all levels and learning about state government. Next week, the topic is leadership and decision making.

“One of the key things about being a leader is, we don’t decide to be a leader until something lights our fire,” Nikola said.

“Participant John Ferrie, president of Fresh Cut^® & Landscaping in Egg Harbor Township, already is fired up on one agricultural issue: waste.

When issues come up like the dumping of grass cuttings or restricting of lawn blowers, “I want to address them more effectively,” he said. “I have a personal thing about water conservation…People waste water. They water during the April showers season.”

Ferrie is full of praise for the agricultural leadership program.

“It’s a huge opportunity for me,” he said. “I’m just a guy who never got to college, starting out in 1983 cutting lawns for side jobs. Now I’ve got 23 employees. Like all of us, I can always use further education.”

The 20 program participants were selected from among 80 nominees statewide. Then each had to come up with 2,000 to partly offset the $12,000 cost per person, he said.

“Most got sponsors for that and wound up paying nothing. Being self-employed, I put the money up, and I think it’s well-spent because I’m going to get a lot out of it,” Ferrie said.

He’s still amazed by how intensive the seminars are, typically running from 7a.m. to “9 or 10 o’clock at night,” he said.

“And I’m able to do things I never could on my own,” like spending the day with Statehouse leaders “and they give you their undivided attention.”

Around the end of February, the group has a five-day seminar in Washington, D.C. getting another government education and face-time with officials but at the federal level.

The program finale, he said, will be a 10-day trip abroad…maybe to the Netherlands or even Australia. Last time the group went to Chile.

Back in southern New Jersey, the program has practical benefits for Ferrie.

“When I have meetings with my men, I utilize a lot of what they’re teaching me,” he said.

It will also be useful in his role as chairman of the 70-member South Jersey Landscape Association.

And one assignment form the first seminar has just paid off: Participants were asked to write a short press release about the program to the local newspaper.

That’s what led to this column.

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