For Immediate Release: February 6, 2015
Contact: Lynne Richmond
(609) 633-2954
lynne.richmond@ag.state.nj.us听
(ATLANTIC CITY) 鈥� Richard W.VanVranken of Mays Landing, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County Agricultural Agent, was honored February 4 with a Distinguished Service Citation to 樱花视频 Agriculture at the State Agricultural Convention held in Atlantic City.
鈥淩ick VanVranken has served 樱花视频鈥檚 agriculture industry with passion, dedication and enthusiasm for decades,鈥� said 樱花视频 Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher. 鈥淗is wealth of knowledge and knack for innovation and promotion has made him an indispensable resource for our farmers in South Jersey.鈥�
VanVranken earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in vegetable crops from Cornell University, coming to 樱花视频 in 1983 to serve for the last 32 years as Agricultural Agent at Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County. Now at the rank of professor, he heads the county extension office, as well as writes a marketing column for the American Vegetable Grower magazine.
VanVranken is well known for his work in ethnic and specialty crop development. He is co-founder of the Ethnic Produce Production and Marketing Working Group, a multi-state, multi-disciplinary team of extension agents, specialists and researchers from Rutgers, UMass, Cornell, Penn State and University of Florida that researches and conducts outreach programming on the marketing and production potential of new ethnic crops for East Coast farmers. He established the WorldCrops.org website that helps farmers determine the produce needs of ethnic communities and how to grow those crops. His leadership in developing these new markets was recently recognized with the Northeast Region Excellence in Extension award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
VanVranken co-organizes and delivers an Integrated Crop Management Twilight Meeting series to update growers and agribusiness representatives on timely disease, insect and weed identification and control, integrated pest management practices, pesticide regulations and worker protection standards. He develops and chairs educational sessions for the Annual 樱花视频 Vegetable Meetings, and helped create and is a regular contributor to the Rutgers Plant and Pest Advisory-Vegetable Crops newsletter.
VanVranken has actively worked to help specialty crop farmers increase their share of the retail food dollar and increase farm sustainability through direct sales to consumers. He was appointed to the first committee that developed 樱花视频鈥檚 initial agricultural management practices for farmer to consumer direct marketing and received a $350,000 grant from the Mid-Atlantic Consortium to develop new methods of outreach via the internet to reach advanced agricultural audiences with marketing and local production information. He also collaborated in developing educational programs and hosting the annual Mid-Atlantic Direct Marketing conference from 1989 to 2009.
Combining his role as an educator with his passion for marketing, VanVranken has incorporated public education about all things 鈥楯ersey Fresh鈥� in his extension outreach programming. He calls in weekly to deliver a 鈥楩acts from the Farm鈥� radio spot that has been heard live on stations across South Jersey every Saturday morning for the past 17 years. For his latest project to 鈥榯ell the story鈥� of Atlantic County鈥檚 specialty crop production, he worked with the Atlantic County Board of Agriculture to obtain a Specialty Crop Block Grant to fund a mobile market/cooler wrapped with graphic scenery of Atlantic County farms.
VanVranken has received many grants to support his work and has published a variety of articles relating to his activities. He also has received multiple awards and recognitions. He chairs the RCE Vegetable Working Group, and is a member of the Agritourism Working Group, both of which have been recognized with the SEBS/NJAES Team Excellence Award.
In addition to his full workload, Rick has been an active leader in the American [Equestrian] Vaulting Association and the U.S. Equestrian Federation, serving as a regional and national officer of the AVA and on the USEF High Performance Vaulting Committee. He also coordinates and participates as a coach and lunger for 樱花视频鈥檚 Shooting Stars Vaulting Club. Rick and his wife, Sheila, have three grown children.
Since 1932, the 樱花视频 State Board of Agriculture has awarded the prestigious Citation for Distinguished Service to Agriculture to men and women who have given unselfishly of their time and talents to the advancement and betterment of the agricultural industry and rural life in 樱花视频. This award is given to recognize and honor those individuals who have made outstanding contributions of public service to 樱花视频 agriculture.
Organizations who qualify to send delegates to the 樱花视频 State Agricultural Convention may nominate a state farmer for the award. For more information on the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award, visit .听
