So explains Larry Halper, a 43-year-old farmer who, together with his wife Clara and their four children, is fighting to stop developers from seizing their farm. To add insult to injury, the land grab is being carried out under the guise of "environmentalism" and preserving "open space."

Halper and his family have been fighting to explain the facts of the case through protests at township council meetings, by taping and televising these meetings on cable TV, and through a recent door-to-door petition drive that netted the support of more than 3,000 neighbors and other residents of the town.

The 75-acre farm, which has been in the family for 80 years and four generations, was originally a chicken farm, then a dairy farm, and is today the site of a nursery operation, bridle paths, and a pumpkin crop. To make ends meet, Halper, like many other farmers, has taken on a second job delivering milk and eggs produced elsewhere.

"We had to shut down our own dairy operation in 1987 because milk prices were so low we couldn't make a go of it," he told the Militant during a recent visit. "But we've always had horses and grain and veggies."

To real estate developers, the Halper's farm is nothing more than the last--hence extraordinarily valuable--piece of vacant land in this bustling suburb 25 miles southwest of Newark.

The farm is hemmed in on all sides by major thoroughfares, a Wal-Mart and other shopping malls, and housing developments. Fifteen years ago Halper says he was offered, and turned down, $22 million for the land.

Unable to force the Halper family to sell, the developers and their local political representatives--sometimes, Halper has found, the same person wears both hats--have taken legal action to have the land "condemned" so it can be taken over, allegedly to be preserved as "open space."

"As if our farm wasn't already an open space!" says Clara Halper. "And who knows better than a farmer how to preserve the land?"

In addition to the Halper farm, three other farms are being targeted in a similar fashion by officials in Bridgewater, North Brunswick, and the Warren Township Council.

Superior Court Judge Robert Longhi issued the original condemnation order against the Halpers in June 2000. In August he rejected the family's appeal for a reconsideration of his decision and denied their request that he throw out the case. The next step will be for the court to name commissioners to condemn the farm, which the Halpers plan to appeal as well.

Under the "open spaces" legislation, land taken at one price for supposed environmental purposes can later be reclassified or "exchanged" at the stroke of a pen and resold for many times the original amount for development.

Halper pointed to 12 cases in which this has already occurred in Piscataway. Responding to questions in August 2000 about seven cases in which "open space" land had either been sold or designated for development, former Piscataway mayor Helen Merolla acknowledged that it had happened, blaming an "oversight."

"They have offered me $4.3 million for the farm, but I don't want to sell," says Larry Halper. "I offered the city the right of 'first refusal' in case we ever did want to sell. But my family and I want to stay here and my son, who is now 11, may want to continue the farm. I don't want to cut that off."
 
 
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