Rutgers Unveils Food Innovation Center
Daily Journal, N.J. 10/18/08 - The doors opened Friday for the first time on an $8 million facility meant to move New Jersey farmers closer to the top of the national food production chain. The new headquarters, a processing and research facility for Rutgers University’s Food Innovation Center, won’t be cooking on all burners until November. But the ingredients for success are in place, seven years after the program opened in temporary quarters in Bridgeton. The center is intended to counter economic pressures that have been closing in on American farmers in general, and New Jersey farmers in particular, for decades. Those pressures include urbanization, consolidation in the ranks of food purchasers like supermarket chains, intensified competition at home and abroad, rising production costs and quick-breeding regulatory standards. The facility features kitchens, laboratories, cooling and freezing facilities, storage areas and offices. Among those attending the grand opening was USDA Under Secretary Thomas C. Dorr.
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