Farm Calls: Health Care Reform and NJ Farms

We've said in past articles, "Growers have to know a lot, about a lot" to be successful farming on the urban fringe. Farm operations are affected in innumerable ways by activities on Capitol Hill. Keeping up with the changes is a full time job. Nowhere is this more true than the impending implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Clearly, agriculture was abandoned and forgotten by lawmakers, and their policy aides, when creating the Act in 2010.

This week, a Jersey nursery grower asks, "How will health care reform mandates impact my operation?"
To answer this, we need to consider:

• What are the contents of the Affordable Care Act as it stands now that affect agriculture?
• What do the mandates mean to a NJ farm in terms of implementation - costs, paperwork, and workforce availability?
• What preparations will have to be made in this grower's operation now to remain economically viable in 2014?