There are not many herds of cattle and other livestock here in Alaska, especially when compared to the lower parts of our continent. In the Plains States, for example, and in the US Southeast, there are miles and miles of fenced-in pastures where hundreds of thousands are animals are being raised. You see nothing like that up here. There are also not as many acres of land devoted to agriculture. Again, elsewhere in the US, e.g. the Midwest, crop fields roll on as far as the eye can see. Again, comparatively few of Alaska's land is set in crops. But that doesn't mean that there haven't been numerous attempts to introduce conventional agricultural and livestock production in Alaska. Some of the attempts have been quite successful--the Mat-Su Valley represents some of this success. Alternately, there have been some spectacular failures--UAF's own Large Animal Research Station (LARS) might fall into this category. In this section, the students will explore livestock and agriculture in rural Alaska. Some of the questions we will pursue include:
- what is the history of livestock and agricultural production in Alaska?
- what kind of livestock and crops were raised here, and what was the success rate? What kinds of crops were raised, and what was the success? What is the current success rate for contemporary livestock and crop production? How has farming changed in Alaska?
- what kinds of markets exist for Alaska agriculture and livestock? How do animal and agriculture products get to market?
- is there potential for specialized agricultural and livestock products here? For example, do muskox and reindeer, and the specialized tundra-based plants that feed them, offer a potential boom for Alaska farmers? How about organic farming? Mushroom farming? Tree farming? Hemp and/or marijuana farming?
- which communities benefit from Alaska-based farming? are the benefits of farming equitably distributed across Alaska?
- what is the status of community-supported agriculture (CSAs) in Alaska?
In the photograph above, a newborn baby reindeer tests its legs under the watchful glare of its mother at the Large Animal Research Station (LARS) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This
Alaska Dispatch article describes the reindeer farm, and asks for names for the new babies.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130403/uaf-asks-help-naming-newborn-reindeer-experiment-farm
Tour of Farms in Fairbanks - area debuted this past Sunday.
ReplyDeleteEach farm featured locally grown produce and raised livestock.
Map of Fairbanks Area Farms:
http://www.investfairbanks.com/projects/agriculture/tour-farms
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/farm-tour-debuts-sunday-featuring-fairbanks-area-farms/article_7209eab2-f5cb-11e2-bc22-0019bb30f31a.html
Here is a list of all the local farmer's market in Alaska.
ReplyDeleteHere at the Tanana Valley Farmer's Market there is a wide variety of locally produced products. Ranging from fresh vegetables, to home made goat milk soap and lotions, to ceramic artists, the local market is a wonderful way to support the local economy.
http://dnr.alaska.gov/ag/Marketing/FarmersMarkets.pdf
Alaska Department of Natural Resources: Division of Agriculture
ReplyDelete"The mission of the Division of Agriculture is to promote and encourage development of an agriculture industry in the State."
This website is an overview of Alaskan agriculture.
http://dnr.alaska.gov/ag/
Rural Village Seed Production Project (RVSPP)
ReplyDeleteThe Alaskan Department of Natural Resources Division of Agriculture has developed a program to stimulate the development of Agriculture businesses in Alaska by working with rural communities to produce sustainable revegetation crops. Although this project is not meant to produce agriculture for human consumption, it is important to use native vegetation to help protect the land.
http://plants.alaska.gov/rvspp/
Subsistence Economies in Rural Alaska
ReplyDeleteSince 1980, federal law has protected subsistence uses by rural Alaskan residents.
Rural villages are substantially dependent on wild foods with their subsistence lifestyles. These wild foods which include salmon, halibut, and native vegetation, are used for medicine, furs, transportation, and ceremonies. The wild food harvest in rural Alaska contains about 242% of the protein requirements of the rural population and about 35% of the caloric requirements (the caloric shortfall is made up with purchased foods imported to rural Alaska).
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/subsistence-economies-rural-alaska
This is really interesting, considering that the Alaska Native Claims Act was signed back in 1971, which was supposed to protect the Alaska Natives' rights to subsistence lands. There is a huge gap there. For some time, things like a death outside of moose season would mean that there would not be moose meat for the funeral potlatch.
DeleteRebuilding Alaska Foodsheds
ReplyDeleteSince a report published in 1982 entitled "Alaskans Feeding Alaskans" about the sustainability of agriculture in Alaska, we are still trying to improve Alaskan food production, and still worrying why so much of our food comes from outside the states. An estimated 13.5% of Alaskans are food insecure: lower than the national average of 16%. Food insecurity rates rises to 20-30% in rural parts of Alaska. While there are individuals growing local vegetation and raising livestock, there remains significant and persistent barriers that challenge innovation and change.
The most immediate challenges include a lack of physical infrastructure for production, processing, and storage. Other immediate challenges include human resources, a lack of social services for agriculture professionals, and state and federal policies regarding food safety, quality, and marketing that are overly cumbersome and too expensive for small-scale producers.
This study briefly overviews other challenges and advances of the agriculture of Alaska.
http://wrdc.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/pub__201441.pdf
Alaska Food Policy Council
ReplyDeleteThis is a link to the their blog. They post news and events concerning food sustainability and health in Alaska. Over 175 concerned individuals and agencies are members of the open council. Their goal is to provide sound policy and recommendations so all Alaskans can have access to fresh, quality, affordable, and preferably local foods. You can follow them on facebook here.
The 8th Circumpolar Agricultural Conference & UArctic Inaugural Food Summit This is happening Sept 29- Oct 3rd in Girdwood, AK.
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education UAF's Cooperative Extension Service SARE program.
ReplyDelete"In 1988 Congress established SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) to promote ecologically sound agricultural practices, sustain rural communities, and to address the disappearance of the diverse family farm. SARE does this by supporting research and educational programs." SARE offers grants for rural sustainable agriculture, workshops, a newsletter, listserv and conferences.
I worked at the Cooperative Extension Service Communications department for almost 2 years and I'd never heard of this program. It sounds more effective than some of the other attempts to promote agriculture in Alaska (see my comment below). Working there, I did get to meet a lot of local farmers, though, since they Cooperative Extension also has a number of publications on gardening, raising livestock, and large-scale farming, specifically in Alaska. They even have separate publications on the same topic for different state regions.
DeleteFood Security Issues by Patricia Young, Tetlin Village Council 2010 This is a pdf slideshow presentation of questions, issues and concerns from rural residents surrounding food in plain language. Subsistence, whether by hunting or gathering, is not technically agriculture or farming, but it is part of life in Alaska, especially in villages. One thing that struck me was the issue of having to barge your seeds in the season before. Or in a community already struggling with having enough clean drinking water, how could they start gardening large scale?
ReplyDeleteFirst Nations Root Gardens. Original Permaculture This article talks about the practice of coastal root gardens in Northern British Columbia by the Kwakwaka’wakw people. A way of cultivation that is not the farming we typically thing of, but is definitely cultivation. The ethnobotanist Nancy Turner quoted in the article is a wonderful researcher and author, and here is a link to one of her many useful books. This one co-authored with Douglas Deur. Keeping It Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America
ReplyDeleteA New Game in the North: Alaska
ReplyDeleteNative Reindeer Herding, 1890–1940 This is an interesting history of importing reindeer for herding by Alaska Natives. By Roxanne Willis in the Western Historical Quarterly in 2006. "In the early 1890s, the missionary Sheldon Jackson brought domesticated
reindeer to Alaska for the ostensible benefit of northern Native communities. What started as a small government program to feed and civilize the Natives, however, soon became a large industry controlled by the Lomens, a powerful gold rush family who sought to make reindeer herding the answer to Alaska’s undeveloped economy."
Here is a link to a thread started by somebody inquiring about living in Tok and raising livestock there. They discuss the difficulties of raising small livestock in Alaska.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.city-data.com/forum/alaska/133471-tok-alaska.html
Here is a link to information on raising yaks in Alaska. According to the article, yaks are most suited to being raised as livestock in Alaska because they are capable of handling adverse conditions and are relatively cheap to feed.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.alaskayaks.com/alaskayakfacts.htm
Heres is a link to an article on a successful farm in Bethel.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130609/farm-flourishes-alaska-tundra
This is a link to a thread on raising milking goats in rural Alaska. Harsh weather, predators, and food are definite considerations when raising livestock in Alaska.
ReplyDeletehttp://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/96004-Raising-Milking-Goats-in-Alaska
http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=182
ReplyDeleteThis link offers a look into the history of agricultural development in Alaska. It emphasizes the economic impact of the industry as well. When Russian missionaries, miners, and trappers began to settle in Alaska, they began to farm in hopes of producing food locally to avoid the high cost of imported produce. Most farms were set up around trading posts and their markets were primarily local. Expansion was difficult due to the high cost of both labor and shipping equipment from the Lower 48. This article also has information regarding a failed attempt by the federal government to begin a costly relocation program for farmers and their families who had lost their land during the Great Depression.
http://acaa.drupalgardens.com/content/csa-farms
ReplyDeleteCommunity-supported agriculture farms, or CSA farms, are like miniature coops. Local residents buy a "share" of the farm and, each week, receives a portion of the produce which is ready for harvest. This arrangement is economically beneficial to the farmer, since cash flow early in the growing season is typically low. It allows the consumer to receive locally grown vegetables which are consistently at the peak of freshness.
The link above is to a website with a list of all CSA farms in Alaska. It also shows the farms status as to whether or not it has shares available to be purchased.