Permits to feed garbage to livestock animals (NJ)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to Open Public Records Act ("OPRA"), I hereby request the following records:

A copy of all granted permits to feed garbage to swine or other livestock animals.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 7 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Evan Anderson

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 14, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hi there,

Thank you for getting back to me. According to the New Jersey Solid Waste Regulations, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture approves requests for feeding food waste to livestock. See page 1, section (a)1iii(3), here: http://www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/resource/26sch01.pdf. Is there no record kept of these approvals?

Sincerely,
Evan

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 14, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 14, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 14, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

This is an appeal to the response to my request under the Open Public Records Act. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture claims that they do not maintain the records I am seeking. However, New Jersey state law requires that the Department of Agriculture approve requests to feed garbage to livestock animals (see page 1, section (a)1iii(3) here http://www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/resource/26sch01.pdf). In response to the rejection of my request, I sent an email seeking clarification on this point nearly two months ago and have received no response. I called the records department of the Department of Agriculture over a month ago and received no response. I called a week later and still have had no luck contacting them on this very simple matter. I spoke with the chief of staff who informed me that she would look for someone to answer my question several weeks ago, but have not received a call back. I again spoke with another staff member who claimed she would track down somebody for me to talk to yet nobody has called me back. It is absurd to have to go to these lengths in order to get an answer to such a simple question. Please refer this request back to the Department of Agriculture and remind them of their obligations under the OPRA.

Sincerely,
Evan