Business Briefs

Art Exposed, a new company headquartered in Manalapan, works with local artists to assist in the promotion of their art in retail establishments and via the Web. For the next seven weeks, Art Exposed will have teams of management students from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Global Business Management (GBM) program competing to see who develops the best marketing plan for the company.

The bachelor’s degree program is designed for the working professional — an adult 22 years or older with two years of full-time work experience. Graduates of the program earn a bachelor of science in management with a concentration in global business management. Under the supervision of professor Deirdre Breakenridge, the students taking the Direct Database and Interactive Marketing class will develop a marketing plan for Art Exposed. Each week, the student teams will communicate their progress to Art Exposed with a work summary. Each class in the program will help the students prepare for the final presentations. Mark Skrobola, CEO of Art Exposed, along with COO Kevin Black, both graduates of FDU’s master of science in computer science program, will select the winning team during the last class of the program, when a cash prize will be awarded.

The New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO), Monmouth/Ocean Chapter, will host its annual holiday auction Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Eatontown. The organization is seeking gift donations, sponsors and advertisers for the holiday auction journal to be distributed at the event.

More than 150 people are expected to attend the holiday auction, which will feature live bidding on the donated gifts. All proceeds from the event will fund the NJAWBO Monmouth/Ocean Chapter’s education and legislative activities and support scholarship funds and outreach programs.

Organic farm certification applications are now available from the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ) through the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

Application packages will be available at a cost of $25, which will be deductible from the certification fee. Application packets include:

A copy of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations for organic production and handling, 7 CFR Part 205, the National Organic Program; Final Rule; the current Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) Generic Materials List and Brand Name Products List; and all necessary forms for organic certification of production (farming) operations.

Any producer selling more than $5,000 worth of product and making an organic claim must be certified. Certification must come from an USDA Accredited Organic Certifier, such as NOFA-NJ.

To request an application packet, growers should send a $25 check or money order made out to NOFA-NJ to: Organic Certification Program, New Jersey Department of Agriculture, Division of Marketing and Development, P.O. Box 330, Trenton, NJ 08625, attention: Erich V. Bremer.

The certification and approval process can take three to six months to complete. If a grower intends to sell organic crops in spring of 2006, now is the best time to apply for certification.

NOFA-NJ is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of organic agriculture. More information concerning NOFA-NJ can be found on their Web site at www.nofanj.org.

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture is in the process of developing an organic certification program.

For additional information concerning organic certification, contact Erich Bremer, New Jersey Department of Agriculture, (609) 984-2225 or erich .bremer@ag.state.nj.us.