Food security is up to all of us

By Craig Gerlach

All Alaskans are eaters, but only a very tiny minority (maybe 2 percent) are farmers working a little over 680 Alaskan farms. Everyone seems to be jumping on the “local food is better” bandwagon, at least with their sentiments, if not always with their pocketbooks, but we have a long way to go before we will begin to attract young people into farming, before we make the policy changes that will make Alaska’s farm economies strong and profitable and the policy and social changes that will put healthy Alaska farm produce on everyone’s table.

It is time for actions to take the place of words. As a society we are complacent about our food, where it comes from and how it is grown; we want what is convenient and readily available, so if a company from Washington State offers to deliver produce from Chile right to our door, it may be easier to say yes than to investigate local options, options that build local farms and farm economies, and options that provide healthy, high quality food that has not been transported thousands of miles and “treated” in multiple industrial ways to guarantee a long shelf life.

Maybe you love fresh vegetables, but perhaps do not have the time or space to grow your own. Have you tried to find a local retailer (In Fairbanks we are very lucky to have several stores that sell local foods…), farmers’ market, school garden or community supported agriculture business? Have you tried to find your own farmer/grower where you can buy food crops, livestock, milk or cheese right at the farmgate, and direct from the person responsible for producing them?

Surprise though! They are all around you. Alaska has at least 36 CSAs, and the Interior alone has nine. Of course this time of year most everything related to local food production is shutting down for the season, but I want to address the issue now because of the celebration of Food Day Oct. 24 at UAF (and around the nation).

Foremost on my mind in all these food matters is the question: How do we get more local farms that will help to create a stronger food system for Alaska?

Answer: I don’t know, but there are a lot of people working on it now, including farmers, ranchers, community shared/supported agriculture farms and groups and researchers as well.

We may not have the best answers yet, but I am willing to work on this issue if you are. I challenge you to help find ways to build healthy food systems in Alaska. At this moment we are so dependent on “lower 48” and global supplies that within three days of a serious emergency our store shelves would probably be depleted. While the “urban myth” that a food storage facility for Alaska exists in Portland is constantly bandied about, even if this were true, it would still not help in a crisis when transportation is cut off, the airplanes don’t fly, the barges don’t land and the trucks don’t roll 24/7 as they do now.

We’ve got to stop pretending that it’s OK that at least 95 percent of our food, if not more, is not Alaska Grown. We have the potential in this state to grow a substantially higher portion of our food but we need the best and most effective integrated farm production strategies, development of infrastructure and improved storage and processing facilities to make the system sustainable, and to put Alaska food on all Alaska tables.

Craig Gerlach is a professor of cross-cultural studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is also a father and a farmer very interested in food systems and the sustainability of life in Alaska.