Frequently Asked Questions

Local Food: Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

ACE recognizes that increasing our local food production promotes Alaskans’ health, increases our food security, strengthens our local economy, encourages community development, and protects our natural resources and ‘viewshed’.  ACE’s mission, “to enhance Alaskans’ quality of life by protecting wild places, fostering sustainable communities, and promoting recreational opportunities” supports our advocacy for building a viable local food system because a) preserving farmland means protecting the ‘viewshed’ from other development, b) increasing our consumption of AK grown decreases our communities’ reliance on artificially cheap, fossil-fuel dependent food from far away, c) encouraging Alaskans to grow their own gets us outside.

•    It tastes better.  Alaska Grown produce such as broccoli and carrots have three times the sugar content because of our cold climate. 

•    Alaska-grown is often healthier.  Berries have up to 10 times more antioxidants than berries from the Lower 48.   Fresher food means fewer nutrients lost over time, in transit.

 •     You buy food from your neighbor, or you grow it yourself!  When you reduce the distance from farm to your table, you build a sense of accountability between you and your grower that doesn’t exist when you don’t know where your food is coming from.

•    Buying local supports the Alaskan economy.  For every dollar spent here it continues to circulate in the state, meaning you’re making an investment that will pay out over time every time you buy local.  This investment provides returns for your kids, and supports job creation in agricultural and associated industry you’re helping to expand. 

•    Eat Your View.  When you buy local produce you protect the ‘viewshed’ – if you like the way farms look more than parking lots, a good way to keep them in business is to buy what they use the land for!

•    Local food systems enhance Alaska’s security.  Right now we depend primarily on food shipped in from Outside.  When we increase our food production capacity right here on site in Alaska, we ensure that if a natural disaster (such as an earthquake or a volcanic eruption) were to suddenly cut off our food supply, we’d be able to provide for ourselves.

And aside from all of these reasons, cooking with local ingredients is fun.  It forces you to get creative and when there’s too much you can invite friends. 

One misconception – eating all Alaskan would mean an awful lot of cabbage and not much more.  The truth is, Alaskans already eat local – every time we stock our freezers with fish, berry pick, or buy Alaskan potatoes at Fred Meyer we’re choosing Alaskan products.  Other common Alaska-grown foods are not limited to but include: broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, barley, rhubarb, strawberries, beets, carrots, garlic, onions, cucumbers, chard, kale…the list goes on.  We also have great local bakeries, fish, dairy, poultry and meat processors, caterers, and restaurants featuring local food on the menu – there is even an Alaska-distilled vodka!  While the Alaskan consumer can’t expect to completely swap over to a completely local diet overnight, food-by-food we can swap out what we currently eat with the local version.  For urbanites, we can utilize our community gardens and for those with some dirt around our homes we can garden.  Additionally, by processing our AK-grown ‘on-site’ in the state we can increase the extent to which local food is available here year-round. 

Good question.  The ‘organic’ movement has taken off worldwide, and organic food – food produced without pesticides, antibiotics, etc – is often hailed as better for you than conventional produce.  However, it’s also frequently more expensive, comes from far away, and according to recent studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, may or may not be healthier.  Additionally, the ‘organic’ label means different things depending on which country is the certifier.  Certified USDA organic producers in the U.S. must meet different growing standards than an organic Mexican farm, for instance.  Organic food is still subject to the increasingly globalized food system, and many critics point out that enormous organic farms are unsustainable in the same way that conventional farms are.

The specific meaning of ‘organic’ can be difficult to follow, and the debates are even trickier.  In Alaska, we only have five USDA certified organic farms because we don’t have a certifier on site, making the process of obtaining certification extremely time consuming and expensive.  However, because of our cool climate we don’t have the same mold and pest problems frequently encountered on farms in the Lower 48.  Additionally since it costs more for farmers to use pesticides and herbicides there’s an inherent financial disincentive against spraying when the climate is taking care of pests and weeds anyway. 

Generally, if you’re faced with the choice between organic Outside food or local Alaskan, we recommend going with Alaskan.  Not only do you either know who produced your food directly or know how to contact them with a call or visit, but you know you’re supporting the local economy instead of losing your money to an increasingly globalized system.  And Alaska Grown truly is ‘fresher by far’, which means it will taste better.

 A Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, program is set up so that consumers can directly support farmers by buying a ‘share’ in their farm.  CSA programs in Alaska work differently than programs in the Lower 48.  Often, in the Lower 48 CSA shareholders pay a flat rate for an entire season and then receive a share of the harvest each week.  The CSA shareholder benefits from the consistent share in the farmer’s harvest and the farmer benefits because of the up-front investment in the farm.  Many times the weekly ‘share’ is available for pick up in a box; otherwise it might be at the farm itself for shareholders to come and hand select.

Alaskan CSA’s, as of now, function differently.  They are sometimes not as true to the traditional definition of a CSA, as described above, but often they are still great for the consumer and the farmer.  There are several CSA programs to choose from, and options might be limited depending on where you live in the state.  ACE encourages you to make sure you know where your CSA is sourcing its food because the idea behind Community Supported Agriculture is that you know your farmer and your local farmer relies on you.

 If you visit the farmer’s market, yes.  It’s fun to peruse the tents, to meet your farmer, and to buy at their stands but it can get quite spendy if you’re shopping for a whole week!  However, the grocery store will offer Alaska-grown at competitive prices.  (Next time you’re grocery shopping, be sure to ask for the Alaska Grown!)  Additionally, pricewise our Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA programs (see question #4) are a very good deal.  Depending on the week, a box worth of fresh Alaskan veggies from your local CSA will be comparable if not less expensive than the same items from the grocery store and farmer’s market.  Sometimes what comes in your box, straight off the farm, isn’t even available yet at the store.  Of course, no price beats what you can grow and pick yourself in your backyard or community garden!

 Managers at the Matanuska-Susitna Borough asked the same question as they researched what it would take to open Alaska’s first processing facility in the Valley.  A processing facility (or more than one) would make it possible to extend the shelf life of agricultural products grown in Alaska by bottling, flash- freezing, and canning Alaska Grown food.  When farmers were approached by the Borough and asked point blank what their capacity is, the response was overwhelmingly, “if you give me a contract for next year, I’ll grow it.”  Essentially, producers wanted to make sure there was a market before they expanded their production.

There is not conclusive data as to what farming capacity in Alaska is – yet.  Studies have been conducted in other parts of the country to determine this figure, and ACE is confident that Alaskans will prioritize this research in the near future so we can fully understand what we can grow and how many people it will feed.  However, in the meantime many Alaskan farmers are willing to grow more if there is a demonstrated demand, so we have an opportunity to expand our local food production while we pursue a longer-term understanding of our capacity.

 It seems reasonable that Alaska will probably not ever be able to wean itself completely off of the global food chain, especially as our population grows.  However it’s very possible to increase our production and consumption of local food to keep more of our dollars local and to increase our security.  According to the Farm Bureau, if our food shipments were disrupted Alaskans would only have 3-5 days worth of food on the grocery store shelves before they became empty.  Therefore, even if we can’t be completely self-sufficient, it’s worthwhile to increase our preparedness in case of an emergency. 

 There was a time when agriculture thrived here like it thrived in the Lower 48, however farming changed everywhere with the rise of the global economy and increasing pressure on farmers to sell land or start growing just one major crop.  The particular effort in the Mat-Su Valley might have been a failure for several reasons, but we have successful farming efforts now, which can become more successful in time and with our support.   In fact, farmers’ successes are critical to ensuring Alaskans’ security and the long term viability of our economy, so it’s important that we continue to promote Alaskan agriculture’s success.

 The short growing season is certainly a daunting challenge to creating a 100% local Alaskan diet.  Luckily, our state’s overall goal does not need to aim toward the 100% mark to drastically increase our local food production and consumption, and we already have many techniques to ‘extend’ the growing season and preserve what we have.  Researchers at the Palmer Center for Sustainable Living (formerly the UAF Experiment Farm) are testing out ‘hoophouses’, which function like greenhouses only they have no external source of heat.  These look very promising for ‘season extension’, i.e. shielding plants from early spring and late fall so that more can grow, and for a longer time.  There are also cold storage techniques, which take veggies such as potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, and garlic and keep them at a temperature and in dark enough conditions that they stay good through the winter.  Additionally, with the proper processing facilities we could greatly increase the shelf life of Alaska Grown products by flash-freezing (broccoli, carrots, peas, etc), prepping (making hash browns to package and sell to schools, hospitals, etc), and canning.   

 In a nutshell, the environmental impacts of irrigation now are minimal and no, irrigation does not affect fish. 

 The longer version is as follows:  many Alaskan farmers use ‘drip tape irrigation’, which is 90% efficient.  The way it works is long lines of tape, which are attached to a faucet, are laid underneath each row.  The rows themselves are often then covered with a fabric, called ‘infrared transmittable fabric’, that retains water while protecting the plant from cold temperatures.  With this system, 90% of water used to irrigate crops does what it’s supposed to!  The water usually comes from wells, which do not affect fish populations.  Of course, when we’re talking about expanding Alaska’s agricultural production there’s always potential that present conditions will be exacerbated and more stress will be put on the water tables.  However, Alaska currently does not have the pest or mold problems associated with enormous farms in the Lower 48.  There are no problems with phosphate and nitrate levels in our water, according to the Palmer Soil & Water Conservation District which regularly runs tests.  Weeds are managed (mostly) mechanically.  Foreseeable water problems have more to do with gravel pits in the Mat-Su Valley and their proximity to farmers’ wells, so farmers are looking to local consultants to help figure out ways to manage this as they expand production.

ACE recognizes that a key component of strengthening and creating a viable local agricultural system is in supporting our local dairies and meat and poultry producers, and we are very happy to say many Alaskan families make their livelihoods off these industries.  That said, we don’t advocate for a particular diet!  Dairy and meat production do require more resources than produce, however our position is if you’re going to buy meat, poultry, milk, and eggs, buy Alaskan. 

 You bet, however subsistence fishing is not included in National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) statistics for Alaska.  These statistics include produce, dairy, meats and other items you buy at the supermarket.

 Five years ago, Alaska had 10 farmers markets.  Now we have 27!  For the complete list of farmers markets in the state, click here.  Find one near you!

-    When you go grocery shopping, ask ‘where’s the Alaska Grown?’

-    Look for local food items in restaurants and let the management know that you support their efforts to source food locally.

-    Frequent your local farmer’s market and get to know your local growers!

-    Sign up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and get to know the people who run it.  Make sure they support Alaska-grown products.

-    Tell your friends.  Have potlucks.  Attend local food events.

-    Start a garden.  Grow herbs on your windowsill, or head out to your local community garden.

-    Join ACE today and stay up to date on local food events, news, and action alerts!