Editing Hammonton, New Jersey (section)

===Blueberry capital===
Hammonton is known as the "Blueberry Capital of the World".<ref>Urgo, Jacqueline L. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121019204431/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-90976301.html "Blueberries ride high in South Jersey farm town"], ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', February 11, 2004. Accessed May 6, 2008. "In the Atlantic County farming community of Hammonton, where crops are king and ancestral connections to the land run deep, they didn't need the state to tell them the blueberry is special. After all, almost everyone in this town of 12,600 - already dubbed the 'Blueberry Capital of the World' - seems to have at least some connection to the berry."</ref>

Since the 1980s, the Red, White and Blueberry Festival has celebrated Hammonton's status as the nation's blueberry capital.<ref>Meritt, Ben. [https://archive.today/20130616050639/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thedailyjournal/access/1704964961.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+30,+2008&author=BEN+MERITT&pub=Daily+Journal&desc=Blue+is+the+word+at+berry+fest&pqatl=google "Blue is the word at berry fest"], ''[[The Daily Journal (New Jersey)|The Daily Journal]]'', June 30, 2008. Accessed May 29, 2013.</ref> A {{convert|1300|acres|adj=on}} farm in the town is Northeast's largest blueberry grower.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/world/coronavirus-updates.html "Phoenix Mayor Says FEMA Refused to Help With Testing"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 5, 2020. Accessed June 28, 2022. "'It's a little dangerous,' said Felix Nieves, 56, a supervisor at Atlantic Blueberry Company in Hammonton. The 1,300-acre farm is considered the biggest blueberry producer in the Northeast."</ref>

Hammonton and the surrounding Atlantic County produce upwards of 50 million pounds of blueberries each year thanks to traveling bands of labor from outside of the United States, though often the farms employing these undocumented workers are largely supportive of stricter border policies. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Trouble in the 'Blueberry Capital of the World' |url=https://whyy.org/episodes/trouble-in-the-blueberry-capital-of-the-world/#:~:text=Hammonton,%20New%20Jersey%20is%20known,could%20also%20affect%20the%20crops. |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=WHYY |language=en-US}}</ref>