Trisha Sheehan 

Moms Clean Air Force 

New Jersey Field Organizer 

tsheehan@momscleanairforce.org 

(856)796-0300 

My name is Trisha Sheehan. I am the mother of 2 young boys, my oldest, Logan, is joining me today. I 

am also the New Jersey Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, a force of over 340,000 parents 

fighting for clean air. I would like to thank you for allowing me and my colleagues to be here today as I 

believe our most important stakeholders are our children and it is important for moms like me to be 

able to share our real concerns over climate change, carbon pollution, and our children's health and 

their futures. 

I work and live in New Jersey, a state whose air quality in all but 1 county received Fs in the American 

Lung Association's 2012 'State of the Air' report for number of high ozone days, indicating that the air 

quality throughout New Jersey is already a health problem. Over 500,000 adults and 200,000 children 

are currently suffering from asthma in New Jersey, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. 

But ozone pollution is only a small part of the health issues we are facing due to the unregulated 

amounts of carbon pollution that is being released into our air. Increased carbon dioxide emissions are 

causing our climate to grow unstable. We are experiencing an unprecedented kind of "high energy" 

weather in New Jersey and throughout our country. I am here to tell you that climate change is real, it is 

affecting my state, my community, my children, and my parents business, and we need to take action 

now. 

My father owns and farms over 5,000 acres of vegetation in Gloucester County, New Jersey. His father 

was a farmer. He is a farmer. And his children now help on the family farm. 

According to the State of New Jersey 2014 Hazard Mitigation Plan there are 669 farms in Gloucester 

County alone, and 10327 throughout the state. There are over 46,000 acres of farm land of which 75% is 

used for crops in Gloucester County alone. However, climate change is changing the way that my father 

is able to run his farm. Extreme weather events in New Jersey are happening more frequently and with 

more intensity than I can ever recall. From June until September of 2010, New Jersey experienced a 

state wide drought. A total of 16 counties, including the one where I live and my father owns his farm 

were declared to be natural disaster areas by the USDA because of drought and heat conditions. In 

August 2011, Hurricane Irene caused damage to many crops across the state. From June to November of 

2012 we saw numerous extreme weather events, such as drought, high winds, hail, excessive heat, 

excessive rain, flash flooding, Super storm Sandy, a snowstorm, and a Nor'easter in New Jersey, all 

within 5 months. 

Extreme weather events force farmers to modify how they do things on a daily basis, be it blowing rain 

water off sensitive plants or applying additional pesticides and fungicides. I grew up playing in the 
tomato fields and eating Jersey tomatoes right from the plant, juice dripping down my arms and using 

my dirty shirt to wipe my face as family members picked the tomatoes around me to be sold to the local 

market. This is such a happy memory for me and I would love for my boys to be able to create similar 

memories of their childhood. Unfortunately, my children will not have this same experience. Because of 

the impact climate change is having on my father's crops, he is forced to use toxic pesticides and 

fungicides much more frequently than he ever has in the past. It is no longer safe to be in the fields 

where this food is grown. Many communities rely heavily on locally grown produce for human 

consumption in New Jersey. As a parent, it makes me uncomfortable to know how many chemicals it 

takes to grow food on my father's farm and nearby farms these days. To counter the expensive and toxic 

need for pesticides and fungicides in New Jersey, many farmers are no longer growing Jersey tomatoes 

or blueberries or asparagus or any of the other common fruits and vegetables that have been grown so 

effortlessly in the past in our Garden State. Farmers are now turning to grape growing and the wine 

making business, as our warmer, dryer climate is now more appropriate for wineries and no longer 

appropriate for growing tomatoes. 

But it doesn't have to be this way. My father doesn't want to grow grapes. He wants to continue doing 

what he knows - growing Jersey tomatoes and asparagus and peppers. And you can help him do that. I 

am asking that the EPA strengthen the Clean Power Plan and finalize a rule that reduces CO2 emissions 

40% below 2005 levels by 2020. Please help my children have the same memories of the farm that I had 

as a child.