Emperor’s Rants and Observations

Agriculture in Alaska has had a rocky and tumultuous history with government involvement going back to 1897. From the “Evolution of the Cooperative Extension Service in Alaska“:

The earliest reference to this work is found in a report by Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson: The first appropriation “to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate and report to Congress upon the agricultural resources of Alaska, with special reference to the desirability and feasibility of the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in the Territory,” became available July 1, 1897

Throughout the history of Agriculture in Alaska long, vulnerable supply lines have been the primary justification for expending government funds and resources on development and support of agriculture. Not much has changed in 100 years. In fact, Alaskans may be more vulnerable to supply disruptions today. Man made or natural disasters could cut off supplies for an extended amount of time. Rising fuel costs could push the cost of food, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat and poultry, up to the point where many Alaskans couldn’t afford to feed themselves without assistance.

So what is the right and proper role of government in supporting Alaskan agricultural self sufficiency? At one extreme we have the school of thought that it should be left completely to the private sector and allow the free market to determine the winners and losers in agriculture. This would be fine in principle, but ignores the fact that there is no incentive for the free market to protect Alaskans from disruption in the supply of food. Unlike other segments of the private sector farming takes years in some cases to bring a product to market in competitive response to high prices. The size of investment required to start a farm would be too great of a risk for the private sector. At the other extreme would be heavy government subsidies, price supports, ownership, control, and management of transportation, storage and processing facilities. Government simply is not structured to take on the responsibilities of the private sector in this manner. This is a recipe for waste and mismanagement. I think it’s evident that there is a role for government to play in Agriculture in Alaska some where between these two extremes.

Like many other issues in Alaska, there is a lack of vision and long term goals for agriculture in Alaska. Perhaps the most valuable contribution that government can make would be to bring together all of the stake holders to create that vision and set goals for the industry. Their doesn’t appear to be an governmental entity that is charged with that function. The Alaska Board of Agriculture and Conservation (BAC) should have their function expanded to include overseeing the process of developing long term goals and identifying areas where the state may assist private industry in attaining those goals through loans, research, marketing support and coordination with other government agencies and services. If government is going to be involved it has to be in a coordinated, planned support role. Not just tossing money around in the hopes that something will stick and work.

Since Queen P has fired and replaced the members of BAC, this would seem to be a good time to consider expanding their role. However, the first order of business has to be to address the Matanuska Maid crisis. Closing the dairy prematurely could be the tipping point for the demise of agriculture in Alaska. There will be plenty of time to figure out what went wrong and why the Creamery Board decided to close the dairy so abruptly. Right now we need to protect the fragile agricultural industry while moving as quickly as possible to get the dairy into private hands without the constraints of being a government owned entity. Saving agriculture in Alaska depends on propping up the dairy industry in the very short term - three to six months. That should be sufficient time to provide longer term solutions not requiring significant government cash support.

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